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Mar 30, 2010 Evelyn Evelyn By Laura Studarus

Somewhere deep in the untamed wilds of MySpace, producers Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley discovered Evelyn Evelyn Neville—a pair of conjoined twins sharing three legs, two arms, three lungs, two hearts, and a single liver. Isolated in a hotel in Walla Walla Washington, the girls developed their obsession with The Andrews Sisters and Joy Divison into a series of lovingly executed ukulele covers. Or so the story goes. I hate to point fingers, but certainly one of twins (as Webley himself pointed out in a blog entry) “has a conspicuously deep voice for a 24-year-old girl.” Shockingly, the other Evelyn sounds like a missing member of another punk cabaret twosome. Chalk it up to serendipity.

Webley and Palmer, conjoined-Martha Stewarts of the theatrically macabre, frame Evelyn and Evelyn’s album through a series of spoken word segments, where the sisters recount their picaresque tale of woe—a tale that includes flying chickens, sexual abuse, societal marginalization, circus freaks, conjoined elephants, and social networking. Despite such obviously campy origins, the sisters’ music often manages to rise above mere spectacle, their back-story flavoring oddball tracks such as “Chicken Man” and “Elephant Elephant” with surprising gravity, elevating the songs above mere musical curiosity.

Of course it doesn’t hurt that the girls are fair musicians in their own right. “Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn” is a straight-up cabaret gem, and opening track “Evelyn Evelyn” could fit as a bonus cut on 2008’s Who Killed Amanda Palmer. The genre-hopping, which the sisters brag about early on, is often jarring—but Palmer and Webley assure their protégées acquit themselves nicely on country-tinged “You Only Want Me ‘Cause You Want My Sister” and the ‘80s cheese of “My Space.” Much has been made about the host of cameos—including Frances Bean Cobain, Andrew WK, and Tegan and Sara—but negated to the role of chorus it’s impossible to pick out individual voices. However, the additional star power isn’t needed. Closing the album with a stripped-down version of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Evelyn and Evelyn prove that with or without their friends, they’ve got personality to spare. (www.evelynevelyn.com)

Author rating: 7/10