THE CAR by Home Phone

Fort Wayne, Indiana duo Home Phone is a group who specializes in the type of idiosyncratic, challenging indie pop that lesser projects only pay lip service to. Formed in early 2020 by Ron Record and Olivia Morris, the band has spent the last several years turning out various home recorded singles and EPs, with each one further iterating upon and refining their novel, glitchy brand of lo-fi, experimental pop. On their first full length, The Car, the group has crafted their most potent collection of songs to date.
Clocking in at around 20 minutes over 9 songs, The Car is concise and deeply affecting, with each track functioning as a movement that tugs the album back and forth between tension and cohesion before landing in a state of perfect parity. Culling influence from a diverse array of acts such as Grandaddy, Beck, Panda Bear, King Krule, Smog, and more, Record's lo-fi production is eclectic, focused, and unmistakably his own, anchoring the songs with a sort of warm familiarity that has to be heard as opposed to described. On top of that production sits Morris' voice, whose measured, inviting, and refined quality acts as a beautiful foil to Record's own charmingly indelicate vocal approach. This musical thread of harmony through contrast is Home Phone's sonic linchpin, striking a balance between the conventional and the experimental that pleasantly teeters but never topples.
Truly timeless music always seems to possess a sort of ethereal, ineffable quality that escapes easy description, and that is precisely what Home Phone has achieved with The Car. From the dually sample-based and acoustic guitar heavy music, to the disharmony-laced yet shockingly effective vocal interplay, Home Phone evokes legendary artists like Broadcast, The Beta Band, or R. Stevie Moore without actually sounding like any of them. And that's their trick. The Car is a collection of songs that you immediately know, despite never having heard them before. You'll list a dozen things it reminds you of as you listen, but each one will only feel half right, because The Car is above all else an amalgamation that transcends its cobbled together parts. The result is a brilliantly crafted record that feels as much like a memory as it does a new experience.
-Grey Gordon (Demolisten Podcast)

home phone is a music project of ron record and olivia morris! based in fort wayne!