NPR

First Listen: The Accidentals, 'Odyssey'

Savannah Buist and Katie Larson got their start as teenagers applying classical instruments to indie-rock earworms. That creative streak remains strong on their major-label debut.

It wasn't all that long ago that the qualities valued most highly in the youthful sectors of folk-pop and folk-rock were earnestness and simplicity. This was music made with minimum fuss — all four-on-the-floor foot stomps, straight-ahead strumming and spirited sing-along choruses.

The Accidentals were surely aware of that movement, though they'd barely reached high school in Traverse City, Mich., when Mumford &. The bookish lyrics of "Odyssey," their new album's cinematic title track, declare a similar penchant for journeying off the path: "But I'm not weak; my brain's a hurricane / Of sky and sea; Poseidon's set a broken / Curse on me; I'm not the one who bleeds / With every odyssey."

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