but if nothing else, they do bring us new records to listen to. And last Tuesday, The Dutchess And The Duke’s brand-new LP, She’s The Dutchess, He’s The Duke (on Sub Pop offshoot Hardly Art), officially hit the shelves. I’ve had a lot of conversations with my dad (an accomplished guitarist and the music buff who turned me into the same) about the decline of the Album-As-Concept in favor of records that are basically a collection of catchy singles that are wonderful on their own, but don’t necessarily bear any contextual relationship to each other. Of course, the downfall of many concept albums is the decision to include tracks that make sense in relation to the record’s theme, but aren’t that interesting on their own. But while there’s not one song on She’s The Dutchess, He’s The Duke I felt tempted to skip– and though She’s The Dutchess, He’s The Duke isn’t exactly a concept album–on first listen I noticed a common thread. Whether the song be a twangy country number or a downtempo folk ballad, the upbeat melodies are always paired with melancholy lyrics (about, what else, heartbreak) that flout the sweet strings and strains of flute. But it’s the album’s closer, “Armageddon Song,” that ties the whole package together. It’s all sunshine and bird songs for the first half of the song, right up until this line: “If there came an Armageddon shooting down from the heavens spitting white hot bullets from the sky/If the whole wide world was dead and destructed/Baby, you ain’t gonna find a single tear in my eye/Cause everybody knows it baby we all gonna die…” And by the end of the track, our heartbroken heroes achieve closure. After all that crying about lost love, there’s an epiphany: “For now, I’ve got you baby, by my side and I’m feeling all right.” So simple, and yet, with this line, the record exhibits its strength, not only as a collection of songs, but as a cohesive work of art.