After more than 15 years of playing together, core Charalambides members Tom and Christina Carter have bid au revoir to outside collaboration, esoteric instrumentation, and free-form improvisation. That’s not to say that the new A Vintage Burden (Kranky) is a complete break with the past: the relatively conventional verse-chorus structures, gorgeous folklike melodies, and guitar-dominated arrangements recall the duo’s haunting mid-90s Siltbreeze LPs, and Christina’s swooping, multitracked vocals defy gravity as fearlessly as the hair-raising wordless maneuvers she executed with Heather Leigh Murray on more recent efforts like Unknown Spin and Joy Shapes. But the nature imagery of new tunes like “Spring” and “Two Birds” stands in stark contrast to the dystopic bleakness of a record like 1995’s Market Square (one track was a frantic call to a suicide hotline that wound up on the Carters’ answering machine). Even a song like “Dormant Love,” which begins on the coldest day of winter and details the end of a relationship, feels somewhat reassuring and hopeful, as if it’s all for the best.
