Most country themed male/female duo acts are compared to classic forebears such as George and Tammy or Gram and Emmylou. The Pleasures, a duo comprised of Australians Catherine Britt and Lachlan Bryan are a shade darker, more gothic if you will, and not afraid to shake the rafters with some rattling rock’n’roll when it suits them. They are more akin to departed bands such as Blanche and Twilight Hotel, both of whom were gloriously dark and messy.
Enemy Of My Enemy is the pair’s second album and it finds them, at times, in a foul mood. There are swathes of growling guitars and riffs galore on several of the songs here. Most ferocious is the gritty rocking blues wail of This Might Hurt A Little Bit which rolls in like a tsunami with its relentless groove as the pair howl together, “C’mon honey don’t lose your shit, I’m warning you this might hurt a bit.” Maybe George and Tammy spoke to each other like that at home but I can’t imagine them singing that.
There’s more mayhem on the grungy Wild Things which finds the band locked in tight amidst wailing guitars and groovy organ riffs with Britt and Bryan wrestling each other vocally while Love Relapse struts with a sixties like R’n’B guitar riff as the pair’s vocals remind one of the vocal sparring of Exene and John Doe on the early X albums. This vocal sparring, as opposed to lovelorn duetting, is to the fore on the opening title song which finds them in tandem proclaiming “I don’t like you but I need you,” setting the scene for the rest of the album basically. That they sing this over a pile driving slice of funk is the icing on the cake.
Aside from the conjoined wails the pair do slip into more traditional duo singing, swapping verses and calling out each other out. The first of these is the swampy tale of marital betrayal on Was It Something I Said which is perhaps the outstanding performance here. Step Away is a another fine instance of Bryan’s ability to write a wonderful tear stained country waltz and it’s the most traditional sounding song here, but there’s also the banjo stained lament of Where The Money Goes while the very fine duet of It’s OK (I Knew What You Meant) does find the pair deserving of a comparison to Parsons and Harris, a comparison reinforced when The Rules, a reined in song, weighs into sight. They close the album with another minor gem on We’re All A Little Blue which has a slight Muscle Shoals southern country vibe to it as Britt and Bryan entwine their voices quite wonderfully.
