Kinleys Breaktakingly Good

The Kinleys “Just Between You And Me” (Epic) *** 1/2

Granted this is about as pop as any other so-called country album you’ll find, even on the “contemporary”-leaning female end of the spectrum. But these twins from Philadelphia are breathtakingly good and original-sounding, with voices that seem to do very individual things and yet fit together with dramatic perfection.

There is power here in the choruses, but the most striking thing about Heather and Jennifer Kinley is the way they can suddenly - in fact, instantly - follow the power with a soft fragility that hangs in the air like a crystalline tear poised for a split second on the edge of a cheek.

Co-produced by one of Nashville’s finest songwriters, Tony Haselden, the duo sings a couple of Haselden creations, the career-launching hit “Please” as well as another beauty titled “Dance in the Boat” (“sometimes I dance in the boat just to rock it”), but they also co-wrote four of the album’s 10 tracks.

They claim inspiration from the smooth-as-one-voice ‘50s harmony of the Everly Brothers, but, although their own harmony is close enough when they do it, their most outstanding quality seems to be an unlikelier ‘70s-ish combination of much more individual-sounding talents.

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