“Drive,” a musing on California, genuinely sounds like a Tom Petty deep cut. “Runaway Kind” in contrast, opens with an operatic sample, then settles into a string-laden, disco-lite rumination that’s “an homage to Chic and the Bee Gees, and all those fun ’70s records,” Robbie says. “It took on different shapes, until we redid the chorus with Bill to make it sound anthemic.” “That one was the most difficult song to figure out,” Marlana says. For instance, the slow-burning “Worth the Wait,” in which their voices melt together into a sweeping chorus, could easily double as a country jam. Much of the album became a vehicle for exploring the spectrum of emotions adult contemporary could elicit. Their first single "Move," celebrates simplicity in great musicianship, cleverly building texture and space through layers of melodic guitars and a driving bass line. “With the drums,” she continues, “we wanted to make something very slow, tribal.” They finished with some sax at the end, “to keep it heartbreaking, but at the same time uplifting,” Robbie says. Graham wrote a melancholic guitar lick, then they added piano for a nostalgic feel. “It gave it this somberness that informed the lyrics,” Marlana says. The band was riffing on some chords, when Bill started playing the bass. “Be Good to Me” was one of the first songs they wrote, and it was completed in pieces. One guitar line had to say something on its own. “Each instrument needed to be important while telling its story. “We focused hard on each individual part,” Marlana says. Milo Greene relocated to Nashville and recruited the Grammy-nominated producer Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses, Lissie) to help them write and record Adult Contemporary. “We challenged ourselves to collaborate better, improve as a team,” Marlana says. “That album gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted on this one.” Adult Contemporary captures the best of their previous work: It’s exquisitely melodic like Milo Greene, with the buoyant spirit of Control. “I would have done nothing differently,” Marlana says. Though no less an accomplishment (Paste anointed it “dreamy”), says Robbie, “We were changing the dynamic of the sound, the dynamic of the band. It was impacted by their strong individual wills, which crowded its sound. Their second album, the dancier, more electronic Control, was a tougher sell. “The first record was magical for us, but we weren’t interested in making it again,” Marlana says. Before long, they were playing Letterman and Leno and Conan. We knew we were doing something special,” Graham says. In 2011, Milo Greene would get standing ovations opening for The Civil Wars. They worked hard to make that serendipity last. Their output is, to varying degrees, a sum of their parts. Says Graham, “There has never been a set dynamic.” It’s just the three of them, figuring it out, song by song. The fact that their fluid structure still works makes the band somewhat of a unicorn. After penning the honeyed, harmonious “Autumn Tree,” they knew they were onto something. Robbie and Graham met when in Los Angeles, where they were introduced to Marlana. “We played two shows and a bidding war happened.” (Their gorgeous, transcendent music soon appeared in everything from Grey’s Anatomy to Supernatural.) In this sense, Adult Contemporary refers not just to their reinvention of a genre, but it’s also a signpost of the band maturing. “It happened extremely fast,” Marlana says. Their first, self-titled album exploded onto the indie scene in 2012. Toeing a line between emotional intensity and light-hearted humor is important to Milo Greene, because they’ve never really had the chance to take a breath. That’s why L.A.’s Milo Greene, the always-evolving indie-pop band, chose the genre as its muse-even naming their third album, Adult Contemporary (out Septemvia Nettwerk). In spirit, it has the beguiling ability to disarm listeners. In intent, it envelops itself in harmonies. In skill, it effortlessly mingles sounds. Adult contemporary is characterized by its exceptional euphony.
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