When the husband and wife duo Mates of State named their first album MY SOLO PROJECT, it got at the essence of their unique symbiosis, both romantic and musical. The album introduces listeners to Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel's extraordinarily ebullient indie pop, which takes Quasi's basic formula of electric organ-vocals-drums and jacks up the infectious pop factor, punctuating it with pink hearts. Not to limit them to the boy-girl element, their songcraft is winningly askew, too. Verses are more apt to segue into more left-field other verses than into the expected bridge-and-chorus. Each track is often a three- or-four-in-one deal, as in "A Control Group". A song like "Proofs" hints at why the duo is such a popular live band: you want to see this catchy, energetic call-and-response in action.|

Rovi