Milk and Bone is a Montreal electro-pop duo (i.e. Laurence Lafond-Beaulne and Camille Poliquin) who earned critical acclaim with their debut album Little Mourning (2015). Exclaim.ca's Scott Simpson has praised the album's consistent quality, and notes that "it's difficult not to be immediately enchanted by their soft harmonies mixed with subtle synths and drums". Montreal Gazette's Brendan Kelly has noted their sleek, minimalistic visual appeal and observes that their music is "lodged somewhere between the mainstream and the hipster worlds. Poliquin and Lafond-Beaulne craft gorgeous synth-laden tracks that are atmospheric and highly original but at the same time the stronger songs all have ear-worm-quality melodies that are impossible to forget".
"New York" is definitely one of their stronger songs, a cathartic, melodic track about the dissolution of a relationship (due to infidelity) which is thematically similar to 'New Yorks' of Sara Lov and Paloma Faith. In all these songs, the urban metropolis becomes a gloomy setting and signifier for the death of a cherished relationship:
'You sayYou're going away/ You're going awayNew YorkFor more than a day/ For more than a day'
The vocal harmonies in "New York" amount to a heartfelt, sincere confession that seems both grandiose and subdued, building a strong sense of pathos that culminates in the anguished, repeated confession that makes up the second half of the song: 'I made love to another one/ To another one'. The layering of vocals and backing electronic tracks creates an arresting emotional effect - one marked by an urgent need for redemption and closure, coupled with a tacit acknowledgement that no easy emotional solution is available. Poliquin and Lafond-Beaulne's voices are so similar, they effortlessly blend into one another and refract into multiple layers (the duo's similar physicality makes it harder to distinguish their voices). The effect is to create a symphonic effect around a single lyrical persona's emotional turmoil.
As Noisey's Kyle Kramer notes, Milk and Bone's aesthetic formula is simple but effective. The duo stick to the tried-and-tested emotional themes of young adulthood ('trust and lust and friendship'), coupling their earnest lyricism with "pianos, vocal harmonies, and lurching groans of electronic bass and drums that hint at skeletal interpretations of dance music". Kramer argues that the end-effect is to foreground the duo's "pristine" and emotive vocals, resulting in an "immediate and earnest" effect that "sticks with you as a result". Poliquin is 22, and Lafond-Beaulne is 24 - I'm hoping that these Franco-Canadians will live up to (or even surpass) all the promise and potential that's on ample display with their debut.
