REVIEW: 'Between You and Me,' the newest record from English two-piece Flyte

London folk-rock duo Flyte seem to attract greatness. What could be a surer sign of artistic success than snagging a Laura Marling feature on their 2023 self-titled album, only to debut the lead single for this year’s Between You and Me featuring vocals from legendary LA songwriter Aimee Mann? Now four albums in, Flyte sound like they’ve settled into themselves, offering up a breezy set of love songs that casually devastate and, for the most part, captivate. 

Songwriters Nicolas Hill and William Taylor have crafted a near-perfect Sunday morning album. That’s not to say Between You and Me is perfect, but the interlocking vocal harmonies and consistent palette of fingerpicked guitars and muted drum fills conjure Simon and Garfunkel, Sufjan Stevens, and the aforementioned Laura Marling–artists whose casual profundity resonates just the same when given your full attention, or being played at a low volume amidst the sounds of cooking breakfast. 

Where Flyte differs from these artists is their devotional lyrics. The relationships detailed in these songs are flanked by questions of self-worth, and fears of being the lesser-half of a loving partnership. “I’m Not There” finds the singer in a state of dissociation: “You are the weather / Mixing with the spirits / Swimming in my drink / Watering your love down.” The cutting emotional truths don’t hit as hard as they could, though, when they’re surrounded by songs like “I’m So Down,” where the singer uses a phrase not known for its emotional intelligence to express interest in having a child with their partner. The vagueness of the more confessional statements (rare as they are: “I’m Not There” is really the only example) sit awkwardly next to the doe-eyed odes to staying in love despite inhibitions. 

I can appreciate art that seeks to find equilibrium in emotional turbulence. Lead single “Alabaster,” with Mann on guest vocals, is the album’s crowning achievement. Charting the woes of a couple that’s aware of their codependent need to fix one another, they know “it’s the wrong way to want you, but it’s happening / the wounds are unfastening.” The lyrics, which might normally read as general, take on fresh character as a duet, and it certainly helps to have one of the master chroniclers of doomed relationships on vocals. The song’s snarling fuzz guitars and perfectly-shaggy drumming seem to embody the controlled chaos of a codependent couple, a mode Flyte don’t explore very often in their instrumentals. With a more dynamic setup, the lyrics have a chance to sink into the cracks, away from their usual front-and-center spotlight where they can come off as saccharine. 

It might sound like I dislike Between You and Me. That’s far from true, though I do tend to prefer the restrained confidence of the band’s arrangements as opposed to their vague and sentimental lyrics. One last example of this: Opener “Hurt People” is perfectly divided in my mind between the instrumental (chiming guitars, the soft boom-bap of the drums), and the asinine play on words, ‘hurt people hurt people,’ that makes up the chorus. Have Flyte created a wonderfully pleasant Sunday morning album? Yes, though I believe their tendencies towards the universal and cliche are the one thing still holding them back.

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