The Music Makes Me Sick

VINYL FORMAT. This is the debut full-length release by Swedish/German duo, It's a Musical. Robert Kretzschmar and Ella Blixt got to know each other on a joint tour with Robert's former band, Lady Boy and Ella's solo project, Bobby Baby in 2006. Ella splits her time between Malmo and Berlin, while Robert studies in the East German city of Cottbus, so It's A Musical is a band between places, as well as between genres. They recorded the songs as they were written in their rooms -- in rough shape, direct, turning somersaults. Four hands on a keyboard, and two jubilant voices. And these are voices that share equal space with each other, intertwining in stunning pop harmony, sung in English. "Lazy" begins as a melancholy piano miniature that expands into a grand, sweeping Burt Bacharach serenade. "Circus" features a waltzing organ and brass confidently bumps against a marching percussion in "Pain." So, what's this music about? Happy things, bad things, like The Carpenters or Jens Lekman -- rough and subtle, virtuoso and amateurish, mischievous and angelic. Sincere, upbeat pop about having no money and having trouble making art.