Paper Cage

Ok gang, let's get the basics and the goods out of the way first. Big Little Lions is a new project from Helen Austin and Paul Otten, a couple of solo songwriters who decided to team up after meeting at a songwriting conference. While I'm not sure what sort of styles and/or genres they've dabbled in separately in the past, together they've settled on a form of folk/Americana rock that seems to be very much the taste du jour, a.k.a. what all the hip kids are digging right now. Austin has a lovely voice that floats sweetly above the music, while Otten's vocals are a little more unusual, without being annoying or grating. His voice was vaguely reminiscent of mewithoutYou's Aaron Weiss. Weiss is one of my favorite vocalists, so that's not a comparison I make lightly.

As for the music itself, all the prerequisites for a catchy folk EP are there: handclaps, tambourine, accordion, mandolin, piano...and of course guitar, bass and drums as needed. The good news is that their songs sound very natural in this genre. Nothing is awkward or forced. Their tunes are appropriately catchy, upbeat (or contemplative for the slower tempo-ed ones). If bands like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers are your "jam," then Big Little Lions is the perfect test tube baby conceived to help fill out your playlist with more folksy goodness.

And therein lies my problem with this EP: there's nothing about it to really set it apart from the pack. It's pretty and nice on the ears, but there's no effort to reinvent the wheel or distinguish it from what's already out there. Again, if this is your thing, then you'll probably love it. But if you were to just come across it on a Pandora station, I doubt there's much here to make it memorable and have it stick. By all means, check this out. There's skill and talent on display here, but here's hoping that their next outing shows them stretching way beyond the boundaries of their genre and trying something truly interesting.