ATP! Album Review: Perma – Two Of A Crime

Some dismiss side projects like the musical equivalent of fan fiction, but stretching creative muscles and exploring new possibilities shouldn’t be something to be frowned upon. Charlie Simpson’s ‘Young Pilgrim’ is an entirely different animal from Fightstar, for example. Perma has some of that atmosphere, and it’s hard not to imagine it as a freeing experience for Max Bemis and Sherri DuPree-Bemis to express as a couple in their music as well as socially.

Despite this, Two Of A Crime isn’t an entirely new experience. Perhaps it’s because DuPree’s vocals are so distinctive and intoxicating that it’s hard not to associate them with Eisley as a whole, or because an artist’s style is simply their style and it shows wherever they go. Either way, it doesn’t hurt the record. Their two voices mingle beautifully and really play off each other in a way that’s hard to imagine hearing them separately.

Of course, failing to mention the context of this collaboration would be criminal. This is a record about two people falling in love by two people falling in love. Bemis is on record as saying that they were writing songs together to woo each other, and it shows, it sounds not just conversational, but like a story, and with that in mind the emotion can be a little overwhelming through the lens of attraction. You can see this really clearly in ‘Let’s Start a Band,’ which feels more like the other kind of proposal than the proposal the title would suggest.

Although it doesn't go out of its way to break any records, Two Of A Crime is a great one. Far from an aside to either Sherri and Max's other work, it’s a tale - and it’s a compelling one at that.

4/5

Edward Strickson

Two Of A Crime is available now via Rory Records.