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Aug 10, 2015 Web Exclusive By Cody Ray Shafer

For her third album under the moniker The Mynabirds, Laura Burhenn once again takes a step in a different direction, with a profoundly powerful result. Lovers Know is both more personal and intimate than GENERALS, a record that honed in on Burhenn's political instincts, by abandoning the grittier industrial tones for a warmer backdrop of synths and mild guitar flourishes. There's nothing to complain about in this new aesthetic; Lovers Know is damn good.

Burhenn opens up the album with a somber declaration, "All My Heart." The first line, "I don't want half of anything," sums it up succinctly. Emotionally, this is all or nothing. It's a beautiful little track, too. The chorus is defiant, yet so carefully subdued. It's a pop anthem without the fanfare, which is a nice place to settle. Anything more and the effect might ooze into schmaltz, but Burhenn manages an enviable sincerity.

The tracks following more or less compete for the same energy, a brooding honesty that plays it cool with complex moments, and the end product is a consistent march of great songs. "Semantics" gets the closest to blowing the cover, but still manages a quiet restraint amid the danceable rhythm. Songs such as "Velveteen" introduce an entirely new palette of vocal harmonics, and a smoothly haunting chorus: "Am I real yet?" The penultimate track, "Hanged Man," is another highlight, building up to an outro of layered instrumentation, and the closest Lovers Know comes to overindulgent.

With themes of personal discovery set against a production that finds balance in everything, Lovers Know is an album that could unfortunately get lost in the midst of some of the best indie pop out there. It is, after all, a record that requires some time to get acquainted, and rewards repeated listening. (www.themynabirds.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10