Heartbeats Accelerating (or, considering the content of most of these songs, Heartbreaks Accelerating) dates to Kate and Anna McGarrigle's best years. Their writing draws from memories of youth, experiences as adults and parents, and collisions with mortality. Their harmonies are complex, buoyant or delicate, and backed with quirky arrangements, often featuring strings or liberal use of the accordion, not exactly a front line pop music instrument north of the Rio Grande. The best songs here are Heartbeats (more prominently recorded by Linda Ronstadt), Love Is (covered by Emmylou Harris), I Eat Dinner, and, my personal favorite since our last child just moved out of the house, I'm Losing You. I listen to this CD and the later Matapedia and think it is too bad the sisters have over the last years faded somewhat into the background in their performances, ceding space to their (to my mind) less interesting children.

This album represents a maturing on the part of this team from their original folk roots. This album is tightly conceived, and if it lakes the brightness of their first album, it has gained a great deal of depth and musicality. Also notable is their continued use of material from Phillippe Tatarchef (Rainbow Ride and D.J. Serenade), whose lyrics always surprise and intrigue. There is an intelligence in their musical choices that belies the apparent simplicity of their songs.

In a way Heartbeats Accelerating is about the exquisite contrast between the excitement of the title cut and the anguish of I Eat Dinner - both songs that are, at the core about love that is somewhere else, but one talks about anticipation and other about loss and regret. The McGarrigle's use this tension brilliantly right through to the final chorus of St. James Hospital. Love blooms and proceeds inevitably to some final injury.

The arrangements are often quite subtle and varied. The two voices, with their nature slightly edgy twang, can move from French chanson styling to pure country without missing a beat. Always though, they are two gentle voices that stand out, even in a storm. This is a sensitive, if somewhat sad album that stand up well to repeated listening.

This masterpiece of an album kicks off with the catchy, uptempo title track which is a celebration of romantic love, but the very next song I Eat Dinner is a beautiful description of loneliness and resignation in the absence of romance. The lilting Rainbow Ride is another gem, a melodic song of hope and longing. Throughout the album the voices are pure and gripping, and the harmonising divine, as on the tender Love Is and the poignant I'm Losing You that deals with the feelings of parents seeing a child growing up, in the most poetic lyrics and imagery. Another favorite of mine is Leave Me Be, a very sad song also about the loss of a child. There's an overall feel of sadness to these songs, with the exception of the title track, but it's the most beautiful sorrow you'll ever hear.

Leave Me Be is one of the many outstanding tracks on this superb album from the McGarrigles. Leave me Be is heartbreaking and wonderfully written and performed, I just can't get enough. I just got this album last week and I have been on heavy rotation on my CD walkman ever since. If you have not heard them yet, you are in for some of the most amazing music you have ever heard. Beg...or borrow!

I think that Heartbeat Accerating. Since it is top 100. I think that Anna McGarrigle should of got the best award for that song. I think that Kate McGarrigle should of had award for best songwriter.