The all too short five-track EP from sister duet pairing, Lily & Madeleine, is on a schedule to be released on June 11 via Asthmatic Kitty, a label founded by Sufjan Stevens. However, the album released by the Jurkiewicz sisters has already been independently issued originally early in January on the sisters’ Bandcamp page.
The sisters are Lily Jurkiewicz, a sixteen-year old HS student from Indianapolis, IN, and her 18 year old sister, Madeleine. Somewhere along the line (I don’t know where), they discovered they were in possession of an extreme talent for harmony, deep lyrics, and a unique ability to have their melodies stay with you long after you have heard a song – any song – of theirs.
The album opens with the lead-off single, a short, haunting tune called “In The Middle”, which contain such stirring lines as “All of the years I have spent here, I have never wandered, I live in the middle…”, written to become almost anything you want it to be, and not necessarily romantic (although it could be that).
The EP closes with a heart-breaking “Things I’ll Later Lose”, a strong musical statement about the many losses of our past, sad as they are. The song leaves a lingering bittersweet cinematic sadness inside.
” Ticket stubs
The movie was all of our love in one afternoon
The sun has bent and faded them
And just like us they’re gone too soon
I have to ask what’s the use
In finding these things I’ll later lose.”
These words, and other mature subjects spill from the souls of two young girls. How? I don’t know. But they easily leave a searing trail in their beauty.
The EP is short. While completely satisfactory as a collection of engaging songs, it also leaves you empty because, well, dammit, you want some more. Fortunately, there are cover tunes from them including Richard and Linda Thompson’s “Dimming of the Day”, and “Blue Ridge Mountains” by Fleet Foxes.
In the future, they have a prominent position in an upcoming John Mellencamp song (“Truth”) from the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, an album of Various Artists tracks collected for the Mellencamp/King/Burnett project (Google it – interesting).
An album is planned for recording in the summer of this year. It already has my attention. It should have yours as well.
The aptly named The Weight of the Globe is stunning.
