VIDEO OF THE DAY: “WE’RE ON FIRE, BABE” BY ANDERS & KENDALL

Anders Parker and Kendall Jane Meade could have called themselves Parker & Meade or chosen a completely different name, but their gorgeous debut album as a duo, Wild Chorus (Nine Mile, February 19), is credited to Anders & Kendall; using their first names is just part of the intoxicating intimacy they create on this gem of a record. Not to be confused with gospel soul singer Kendall Anders, Kendall (Sparklehorse, Helium, Juicy, current indie faves Mascott) and Anders (Varnaline, Gob Iron with Jay Farrar) have been friends and collaborators for nearly twenty years, but this new pairing finds them writing and singing songs that lift them to a whole new realm. “We’re burning through the night / Burning through the days / We’re just about as hot / As the sun’s rays,” Anders sings on the album’s first single, the infectious “We’re on Fire, Babe,” continuing, “You set my blood on fire / I’m always going off / The way we move together / How we never stop.” The album’s eleven songs, the first full-length disc recorded at former Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor’s Wild Chorus studio in Knoxville, will set listeners’ ears on fire as Anders & Kendall move together beautifully, dropping little hints of the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, the Byrds, Lou Reed, Nirvana, and the Band while harmonizing to the heavens and engaging in vocal dialogues in songs that combine indie pop with flourishes of Americana, folk, rock, and country, from the gentle gait of “City of Greats” to the jaunty bounce of “Let’s Get Lost,” from the poetic elegance and longing of “Sleepwalking” to the driving ’60s beat of “Dreamers on the Ground.” On “Let’s Get Lost,” Anders sings, “Live as you want / Love as you want / You can really feel me / You can really see me / So run” while at the same time Kendall declares, “You know it when you know / You find it as you go / And we can walk for hours / And we just keep on talking / Don’t you know?” We suggest you run, not walk, to catch this magical duo as they hold their record release party on Sunday, February 24, at 7:00 at Rockwood Music Hall (Stage 2) with Benjamin Cartel before A&K heads out for SXSW. Listening to music, sometimes you just know it when you know it, and with Anders & Kendall, well, you just know it.