Maggie and Martin --- Union

If you only have a few dollars (pounds, euros) and you want to give yourself a fulsome treat, spend them on Union by Maggie and Martin.

After a few listens I was in adjectival overdrive --- sumptuous, elegant, haunting, wise, earthy, ethereal, subtle, direct --- the songs are very easy to like but hard to characterize. Anchored by Maggie's pleasantly worn and amazingly evocative voice, the songs are timeless. While there are nods to numerous genres and influences, Maggie and Martin create and occupy their own musical universe. That is a difficult trick to manage, and that they do so effortlessly is amazing. They end by sounding only like themself. Congratulations.

My first exposure to Maggie and Martin was through polari, an online magazine of culture seen through a queer lense. Polari has commissioned various artists to cover songs by renowned LBGT artists. In this case, I was intrigued by the duo's highly original reading of Pet Shop Boys You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk; stripped of gloss and it's mid tempo euro disco veneer, the PSB song is revealed as a grainy and very moving dissection of a relationship gone static and stale. On Union, Maggie and Martin give Roxy Music's More Than This a similar treatment, making it say new things and making it their own.

Standout tracks are the bravura opening track, Night of a Thousand Stars, Union and Wu at Heart. But really, all the songs are outstanding.

Press on the group seems spotty and their online presence is low. I hope that this means that Maggie and Martin are busy working on new material. I would certainly stand on line to hear it.

5/5 Stars.