Last year, if I had been made to guess what would become my favorite album of 2009, I would have been, in a word, wrong.

That’s because I would never have suspected that A Day for the Absent, the second album from brother-sister duo Outerhope— Mike and Micaela (a.k.a. Mick) Benedicto— would win me over so totally. I mean, their first album, Strangely Paired, was impressive, make no mistake, and I liked it well enough. Here’s a description, from a feature I did on the band for the special Music issue of Imagine magazine that came out early this year:

According to their MySpace page, [...] “Outerhope’s sound is introverted, absent-minded, and somewhat whimsical.” Those adjectives all apply to varying degrees, though perhaps they are a better description of the kind of people who gravitate towards Outerhope’s music than the actual music itself. The siblings’ songs are by turns playful, delicate, dreamlike, and eminently hummable; characterized by Mike and Micaela’s vocals and a sound that usually relies on little more than a keyboard and a guitar, they have an undeniable charm and glide on evocative, lightly poetic, occasionally quirky lyrics. They bring to mind old-school cartoons, fanciful children’s picture book illustrations, sepia-tinged memories, the laughter of an afternoon.

The funny thing is, their sound hasn’t changed all that much for this second album — but the songs have gotten better. It’s hard to express the quiet thrill that such perfect little works like “Lost in Numbers” and “The Story So Far” can impart — that will have to wait ‘til I attempt a full review — but just take my word that this is fantastic music, well worth seeking out.

In other words, there is a place you should be tonight, December 5, Saturday — and that is at the official launch of A Day for the Absent, at SaGuijo Cafe in Makati (see saguijo.com for a map). Aside from Mike and Mick themselves, a number of guest-bands will be performing, all of them sibling-bands as well: Slow Hello, The Wentletraps, The Brotherly Lovers.

I’ll leave you with another excerpt from that Imagine interview, where i asked Mike and Mick to react to a short list of famous sibling-bands.

MIKE AND MICK BENEDICTO SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS ON OTHER SIBLING-BANDS

OASIS

MICK: I liked What’s the Story, Morning Glory?
MIKE: I liked... “Cast No Shadow.” But I’m not a big fan.
MICK: Yeah, me neither.
And I assume you guys don’t fight like the Gallaghers?
MIKE: Of course we fight.
MICK: Sometimes—over, like, silly things.
But not the music?
MIKE: Oh, not the music! We have conflicting opinions sometimes, but it’s always resolved. So, no real struggle there.
So it’s more like the usual sibling “You drank my Chocolait!” kind of thing.
MIKE: She did, actually.
MICK: No...

THE CORRS

MICK: Hey, we had the first Corrs album! Remember?
MIKE: I don’t want to be associated with Jim Corr though.
MICK: Yeah. Poor guy, no?

JACKSON 5

MIKE: I have a sense that if I were back in that day I’d find them cool, but I wasn’t really exposed to them.
MICK: I just remember The Wiz.
MIKE: What’s that?
MICK: You remember? The Wizard of Oz, with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. That was cool.
You actually saw that?
MICK: Yeah! A couple of times. I’m quite old you know. (laughs)

THE BREEDERS

MICK: The Breeders! That’s cool, actually. Kim and Kelley Deal.
MIKE: I’m not familiar with them.

HANSON

MICK: Hey! (laughs) Don’t diss Hanson!

(MIKE starts praising Hanson, sarcastically, then remembers that sarcasm doesn’t always translate to print. He requests that we not report what he just said.)

MICK: I don’t want to be a snob towards Hanson—they’re definitely better than the Jonas Brothers. Right? (MIKE agrees.) I don’t wanna diss Hanson. They’re quite good, actually. Musically.

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

MICK: Eeew.

So this is one of those things that you guys know you both don’t like?

MIKE: Right.

NELSON

MICK: (laughs) Oh my God!
MIKE: (incredulous) The Nelson twins?
MICK: My sister and I actually liked the Nelson twins!
MIKE: “After the Rain”?!
MICK: “Love and Affection” is actually better. Nice hair!

Visit Outerhope online at www.myspace.com/outerhope and www.outerhope.com.ph. Send comments and questions to Luis at thekingofnothingtodo@yahoo.com.