By 2011, the Bops had shed every microfiber of "edge" that so permeated their early work. There was not so much as a particle of the rapier sarcasm that was so abundant on songs such as "Gentle Sheep", "Wake Up", "Fish To Fry" or "Your Head's Too Big". They had ditched their crack band, no John Lambdin, no Greg Rutledge, just the two by-now married women. Two women who are apparently utterly incapable of writing or recording ANYTHING that doesn't command the listeners attention. Like every album before, "Love Letters" is one wonderful song after the next, front to back. It is also the first full length album released since 2008's "Summer Rains", and from the way things look right now (as of the 2013 original posting of this review and as of this edit in March 2016), the last ever Bops album written and conceived as an album. (There will be one more review after this)
Also, I can not find one singular YouTube video, even amateur ones, of any song from this album, so I'm forced to use Spotify links. My apologies to those unable to access them.
PSYCH! I found the whole album yesterday! YouTubes forthcoming...
This final album opens with the title track. There is a taste of what has become of Abby's playing that runs throughout "Love Letters". Having by this time no band behind her, her playing has evolved to a point where she has become her own bass player. I realize that there's a basic element of that in most guitarists, but she has really become brilliant at it by 2011.
The next track is the completely charming 'Marion" (Although the way it is sung, it seems to be about someone named "Mario").
This is followed by my absolutely favorite track on "Love Letters", the transcendentally gorgeous "The Pretty Girl Got Away". It boggles my comprehension that at this late stage of their careers these women could continue to pen such works of this astonishing magnitude of beauty.
This is followed by the delightful "I Wish I Could".
"Waste Away" is almost as staggeringly beautiful as "The Pretty Girl Got Away". A side note, there is YouTube clip of a song called "Waste Away" from their 2004 show (I don't recall an internet show at that time, I think it was produced for local independent cable access TV), but it's a totally different song.
Beautiful harmonies run throughout "Still Inside". A Ditty Bops song with beautiful harmonies, what a concept! 8^P
I absolutely LOVE "Wandering Eye". I recall a great performance of this song the last time I ever saw them just over 2 years ago in Seattle.
"Charlotte" is a song of dreamy, ethereal beauty.
"Jealous Of The Sun" is a joyful number, another that features Abby's self-accompanying bass lines.
"The Windy Song" continues the loveliness. These ladies simply are not capable it seems of anything else.
And if there's one spectacular example of Abby's development as her own bass player, it is with no question in my mind "Sad Song Of My Heart". Maybe the fact that I'm a bass player makes me hyper-aware of this, but I am totally drawn in by this element of Abby's playing at this stage.
And if there's an equally spectacular example of the COMPLETE absence of the "edge" that permeated the early albums, it would easily be "Lady In My House". This is a love song about two CATS, fercryin'outloud. And yet, they pull it off. It's wonderful.
"Love Letters" concludes with the wistful "Gone Fishin'". A lovely end to a beautiful album and a magnificent recording career.
There would be one more release, 2012 "Jelly For President"...