F&M's two voices

Today I have another married couple group to throw into the hat. Ryan and Becky Anderson form the core of F&M, an Edmonton based band named after a funeral home back in 2002, who released their fourth album, Every Light Must Fade. As befitting their names' inspiration, the album has a quite sense of dark despair.

The pair share vocal duties on the album, with Ryan singing the majority of the songs (nine) and Becky picking up the rest (five). And although the instrumentation for both is consistent (which as mentioned above, is for the most part quiet, mostly spare, no frills accompaniment that sets the somber tone under the lyrics, and at times almost natural sounding as if it was the noises you'd hear around you listening to the sounds of the world), depending on the vocalist, the songs have a very different texture to them. Ryan sings with a distinctly deep voice that almost reminds me of the lead singer from Crash Test Dummies. His pace is slow and measured and feels like a steady plodding to a dark end. Becky's voice, on the other hand, has a quite contrary sense of lightness to it that even when singing of unhappiness, still seems to offer a measure of hope.

Below you'll find a song from each Anderson. Becky sings the acoustic Stuttering Boy and Ryan sings Stars. It will give you a flavor of the differences between the two while also giving you an idea about the album as a whole.

F&M - Stuttering Boy : Every Light Must Fade

F&M - Stars : Every Light Must Fade

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