Chocolates and Cigarettes 
Artist: Angus and Julia Stone
www.angusandjuliastone.com/shop
Length:  6 tracks / 19 mins
 
Whether or not it is because they are a brother-sister combination, these Stones naturally gel. Their songs mix the vocal styles, ambience and dreaminess of Nick Drake, Damien Rice and Leigh Nash, often letting their vocals ride over a moving stairway of crisp, yet gentle, acoustic guitar. Helping it along is some purposeful percussion that manages to keep it stoked without losing the chilled atmosphere. Each sibling has their own songs and they take turns on lead vocals, with an occasional accent harmony here and there.
 
The Australian duo is making a name for itself, and the songs explain why. Try “Paper Aeroplane” on YouTube to catch a sense of their storytelling. The innocence of this piece complements the slightly oblique, soundtrack-like “Private Lawns” (which had its birth in the Calamity Jane movie). “All of Me” is a beautifully delicate, percussion-free piece. After hearing it, you just want quietness in which to savour its echoes. “I’m Yours” has a flat verse with a hook title (and again has a compelling and very different video on YouTube].
 
As my review copy was electronic, I don’t know which Stone wrote which songs, but I suspect that Angus’s might be the more prosaic, but with strong guitar patterns (“Babylon”), while Julia’s have the dreamier lyrics. I loved the way these snapshot words from the title track evoked a mood: 

Living on a diet of Chocolates & Cigarettes / I wanna call you again
I’ll drink tea sometimes when its cold ...
Still too young to fail, too scared to sail away / But one of these days I’ll grow old
And I’ll grow brave and I’ll go. 

These six songs have the feel of chapters in a book – each has its own part of the story to tell, but still shares the world of the others. No histrionics here, just a bunch of quirky, charming, summer evening tunes.
 
(This came to our attention long after its 2006 debut release, but they are certainly an act to investigate if you like chilled atmospherica).
 
Derek Walker