Husbands – “Must Be a Cop”

SXSW 2023 – OEB Score 7, Popularity Index 9

Pairs well with…Death in the Afternoon, The War on Drugs, Phosphorescent

Each SXSW, I allow myself a single “lovechild” reference in a review.  This is my one time for 2023. Husbands sounds as if The War on Drugs and Phosphorescent had a baby. There, I got it out of my system. Moving on. Husbands is the OKC duo of Danny Davis and Wil Norton who discovered their creative bond working on a Godzilla musical in college. They have since gotten married (not to each other), hence the moniker. Their sound is a warm mix of summery low fi pop and dreamy indie rock, but with enough garage and shoegaze intensity to propel their songs forward, much like the bands above that I won’t mention again. Their stand-out single is probably “Must Be a Cop,” a mid-2000’s indie rock number with a hypnotic guitar line, lo-fi fuzz production, and a synth line that sounds almost like a yodel.  The song uses the narrator’s difficulty in finding a spot in a parking lot as a metaphor for a whole lot of awfulness in the world. This song is on Husbands’ recently released album Full-On Monet, which has several other standout tracks including “Bad Signs” (fun percussive beats interrupting the reverb laden vocals and guitar) and “Wishbone” (featuring a dark post-apocalyptic tone). While the album has infectious melodies and rhythms, the lyrics tend to reflect an undercurrent of existentialism and anxiety, hence the album’s title, a sly homage to Clueless, where Alicia Silverstone’s character uses the phrase to mean something that is messier the closer one gets to it. Listen carefully and you’ll hear more esoteric references in the context of the mundane, giving Husband’s music both a low-key profundity and somewhat devious humor. In summary, Husband’s Danny Davis and Wil Norton are two talented and imaginative guys, even if they are married dudes, one already with his first child. (David Zlotnick)