When Owen Holmes and Madeline Long sing together, as they do in Gospel Music, it escapes them in luxurious sighs and asides. They toss pointed observations and loaded meanings into the air, as if they were dropping a just unhooked fish back into the lake. It's done with the fish just slipping out of a dirty hand and plopping into the green water with a tiny splash. Then it's right back to getting another worm onto the hook, silently casting the line back out and sitting down for another spell of waiting around for the next thing swimming to strike.
Gospel Music material is odd, for it makes sure to look at love pragmatically and still view it as one of the most mystifying acts that will ever be carried out by anyone, living or dead. Holmes, who was formerly a member of the Florida band Black Kids, and Long contemplate many different romances on the band's debut album, "How To Get To Heaven From Jacksonville, FL," digging into the absurd, though nothing's absurd at all when it comes to the wackiness of love. They wonder about a bird and a fish falling in love and it seems that someone lost an argument or caved, only to start a new discussion. It was conceded that they could fall in love, but the new problem to be tackled would be, where would they live?
A song such as "Bedroom Farce," sort of piggybacks onto the idea that they sing about earlier in this session on "Apartment," where a couple know that they'll be embarrassed around their friends if they get back together again for the 10th time. They think about it and just conclude that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, but just to be safe, they'll just hide out in her apartment and go it together, without those friends. Holmes and Long rattle of a list of descriptive examples of the things that both a man and a woman do, followed by a dismissive, "I don't know what you see in them." It's not a song about wishing that somebody would look at them the way that they look at this other disgusting(?) creature, but just one person's opinion. They shatter the weight of those opinions quickly though, when they come together and sing, "None of this matters/They're in love with each other."