The new record from Carriers is called Now Is The Time For Loving Me, You & Everyone Else and it drops on Good Eye Records on Friday. It's the sort of thing that kind of caught me by surprise, offering up similar charms to those one might find on those recent albums from The War on Drugs, without the heaviness of those. The release, rich with themes of redemption and sometimes explicit Christian concerns, is one that's got a nice power about it, and it should appeal to those looking for something that feels capable of transforming a listener in some small way.
Now Is The Time For Loving Me, You & Everyone Else opens with the spry "Patience", a number that, for me, recalled something from The Arcade Fire, only without the pretension, while "Make It Right" was even better. If Curt Kiser here sounds a lot like The War on Drugs, he's at least making this sort of material move with a little more energy, such that the tunes, as simple as they are, have a nice momentum about them. Some numbers here overstay their welcome, like "Dangerous Dancer", even as others, like "Daily Battle" and "Another Guy", betray debts owed to Nineties-era Springsteen or even U2.
Look, the kind of music on Now Is The Time For Loving Me, You & Everyone Else isn't really the sort of thing I listen to anymore (though I would have once), but the players here make this work. Special praise must be thrown towards Bryan Devendorf (The National) for percussion and John Curley (The Afghan Whigs) for bass-work. Still, this is Curt Kiser's show, and that so much of this actually succeeds as much as it does, is down to his skills at crafting simple, direct, spiritual rockers.
Now Is The Time For Loving Me, You & Everyone Else is out on Friday via Good Eye Records.
More details on Carriers via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Michael Wilson]