Love? said the Commander - "In The Kitchen"

Words by Zach Romano

Philadelphia duo Love? Said the Commander have returned with “In the Kitchen”, their second EP of 2022. Like February’s “Bones: Live from the Wayne County Courthouse,” their new EP is sonically focused on the space in which singer/multi-instrumentalist Kate Hall and guitarist Chris Bishop recorded it. Here, Hall’s kitchen and neighborhood serve as essentially a third band member, conveying a warmth and nearness as the busy sounds outside of her house fill the spaces left in L?STC’s spare, disarmingly intimate tracks.

Opening track “To Be Young” begins with the sounds of birds chirping outside and quickly moves into a waltz between guitar and mandolin. This song, along with “Drive” and “Give and Take” continue the band’s exploration of that dull, liminal space when a relationship is effectively over but hasn’t officially ended yet.

 While the band was recording each song on the EP, they placed a microphone outside the door into the kitchen in order to fully capture the sounds outside and make the listener feel like they, too, are in the room. These sounds work oddly perfectly in some cases, such as the car going by at the beginning of “Drive”, and the barely-heard conversation at the beginning of a later track sounds like it could be the purposefully placed found audio.  

As with L?STC’s last two EPs, Chris and Kate recorded and mixed everything themselves. It’s easy to hear their skill growing here, and this EP sounds more full and lush than a set of songs recorded on a few mics in a kitchen has any right to. Everything comes together on EP highlight “In Your Room,” which, in another favorite L?STC trope, uses a small, barely noticed moment to show something deeper in a relationship. The infrequency with which the band use distortion magnifies its effect when employed on Chris’s guitar near the end of the track, and Kate’s violin solo is beautifully complemented by chittering birds.

Stream the EP below.

You can listen to In The Kitchen on your streaming platform of choice. including Spotify. You can purchase the EP on Bandcamp. Keep up with Love? Said The Commander by liking them on Facebook and following them on Instagram.