The duo that makes up Physick has been building and polishing a sound that’s all their own since their first album in 2011, Songs For Friends. A few phrases can describe their style: a little classical, a little jazzy, a little indie pop, a little blues, vintage but unique, eclectic but thematic, heavy on the instrumental, sensual…perhaps it’s a little bit of everything?
The really cool part is how Physick has managed to correlate and yet slightly alter the style and sounds between the three records so far. Between Songs For Friends (2011), Death Is Their Shepherd (2015), and All The Days (2021), there’s a distinct regularity that follows in each and every song that is identifiable and clear to our ears, where we can say with confidence, “yes, this is definitely Physick.” However, in both keeping in style with an album’s overarching theme as well as still developing a personal style overall, the songs vary from songs of the other albums as well as from each other.
While the first album, with a thematic focus on friends going through various struggles, contains a strong jazzy feel with featured instruments like saxophone, keys, bass, and trumpet, and a vintage 20s-30s vibe that makes you feel like you’re in a classic musical like Singing In The Rain, the second album, with a thematic focus on death, has a more melancholic, modern, darker vibe to reflect that darker theme. There is a constancy, though, of the elements previously listed: classical, jazzy, indie, vintage, sensual, instrumental.
For All The Days, headlined by the first single, “All The Days,” Physick continues those elements faithfully with some slight changes to reflect this album’s theme: long-term love. This time around, we feel like we’re in a jazz bar in 1930s Paris. The minimalist, polished, romantic vibe with an emphasis on duet vocals wonderfully reflects the mundane beauty of a long-lived love story that began in a slow burn and continues on in a quiet and peaceful normalcy.
The song is headlined with a steady guitar strum, and isn’t accompanied by keys and drums until more than halfway through, so there’s the wonderful simplicity of just guitar and vocals through most of the song.
It can be categorized as a love song, but it’s not like most other songs that tend to focus on either the beginning sparks of romance or the tragic ending of a relationship. This one pays tribute to the days after happily ever after, when the honeymoon is over and real life of marriage sets in. But the romance isn’t gone, and Physick begins by painting an innocent picture of a couple who is still very much in love.
I picture us in France
Beside the Seine.
We amble hand-in-hand,
Then silhouette a kiss
By sunset.
This is a couple who has settled into the ordinary and is enjoying the little details.
I’d rather be
with you right now,
Towel on your head.
Wear it like a crown
My princess.
They’ve clearly spent many days together, and a lot has happened since they settled down.
All the days
We’ve shared
Cannot be contained
In pictures.
The singers sing with an ease and tenderness to translate the ease and tenderness they feel with life and with each other. There’s an aroma of confidence and maturity present in the simplicity of the mixing and the uncluttered rhythm and sounds. In their quest to present “a record of love songs for the long haul,” Physick certainly is starting off on the right foot.
