"GQ - The Essentials, March 2006"  (GQ)

"On Bring It Back, their fourth album, they gingerly lift the moratorium on six-strings-- a few lurk in the background throughout the record-- and explore a more varied sonic palette. The fattened sound, however, doesn't mean an altered band, just a better one.

Mates of State have always been fascinated by the dark, haunted corners of glistening pop melodies, and Bring It Back finds their fixation vibrant as ever... On previous efforts, the slinky loop that opens "Think Long" would've constituted the track's sole melody. Simple lines, left alone, echoing large-- they were Broadcast before Broadcast were Broadcast. But Bring It Back features Mates of State's fullest songs, and many of their longest. The added length lets them be characteristically piecemeal-- "We attach parts together until they make a whole song," they claim on their website-- while deeper orchestration provides the adhesive previous efforts lacked.

If "Proofs", from 2000's My Solo Project, represents one possible (and thrilling) result of the couple's chemistry, Bring It Back suggests another. When the latter paired a spare, roomy drumbeat with a loping, calliope-style organ line and impassioned vocal teamwork, two was the magic number."  (Pitchforkmedia.com)

"Calling Mates Of State "charming" qualifies as faint praise, but it's also one of the best ways to describe the San Francisco-based husband-wife duo, since they do charm as well as anyone in their indie-pop class. Like Quasi, Yo La Tengo, Butterglory, and a handful of other married (and divorced) rockers, Mates Of State exploits the tension of a romantic and creative collaboration. On their fourth album, Bring It Back, vocalist-keyboardist Kori Gardner and vocalist-drummer Jason Hammel work to separate their talents, then reunite them with renewed purpose. Case in point: the album-opener "Think Long," which has Gardner and Hammel doing their own simultaneous, interlocking chants over a high electronic hum and a syncopated beat, then finally syncing up after nearly three minutes to recite the title together. It's a catchy—and, yes, charming—piece of pop deconstruction, but it's also a demonstration of what partnership means... The songs skirt the edge of cute, but Gardner and Hammel's forthrightness and skillful arrangement keep them from becoming too sugary. They're more triumphant than twee."  (Onion - AV Club)

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