Apr 16, 2015 Music
It’s rare these days to hear duets done the old fashioned way, where the voices cheerfully cajole and comfort and tease out the best in each other. Waitakere-based duo Paper Cranes (Fraser and Naomi Browne) look and sound like a contemporary folk-based project, but their vocals hark back to the 1940s style of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.Their debut long-player was written and rehearsed in the wake of a cancer diagnosis, which might help to explain the lack of the usual worldly concerns on a bunch of songs that has the feeling of an extended rumination on life’s essence. Instead of the usual trivial post-teen angst, The Road Home is a quiet, intricate and carefully layered set of songs that feature the odd gothic detour, but mostly concentrate on thanking their many blessings.
Eventually pieced together at Roundhead, the album sounds like a slow, dream-filled healing. It isn’t devoid of songs about jealousy or guilt, but taken as a whole, there’s something special about a record that contains lines as resolute as: “If I had the chance I’d choose you again.”
