Duets

Self Defense Family are a band as continually interesting as they are musically ambitious. Three years in the making, their new record "Duets" is the result of a longstanding collaboration between them and Albany singer and Family member Caroline Corrigan. Corrigan has fronted the band before at shows and on the 2013 record "You Are Beneath Her," also released by Iron Pier. Here, she and regular Family singer Patrick Kindlon are put together front and center and afforded time and space to collaborate. "Duets" is five new songs with overlapping themes and a cohesive sound that builds on the band's own distinctive approach but integrates new elements of alt-country and indie rock. Over the course of the record Kindlon's and Corrigan's voices sing against each other, overlap, double back on each other, and break apart, with Corrigan alone singing on the final track. "Duets" is tuneful and accessible but just as challenging, interesting, and as personally confrontational as the band has ever been.