5 things to know about A Pill for Loneliness by City and Colour
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 18:06:19 +0000
City and Colour | Still Records
Not including last year’s stripped back acoustic live set Guide Me Back Home, A Pill for Loneliness is the sixth full length album from City and Colour project. Not only is it no longer necessary to mention that this is singer Dallas Green’s post-Aleixisonfire solo project, after 15 years this is also a full-fledged band. And with If I Should Go Before You from 2015, the third Canadian No. 1 from City and Colour, the membership is solid.
With tours and studio time behind it, the group gels on the 11 new songs like it’s played together for the project’s almost 15 year existence.
Coming out on Green’s own Still Records, an imprint of Dine Alone Records, A Pill for Loneliness has produced two singles so far. Astronaut is a grungy mid-tempo track that suggests time on the road with Neil Young a few years back wore off on Green. Strangers is a more upbeat rocker with one of the most contemporary pop hooks that he’s produced to date.
Here are five things to know about the album:
1: The voice. While there was never any question that Green had a good set of pipes, he’s really putting them to work as a rock frontman on the majority of the 11 songs. From the drawn out almost Brit Pop phrasing of Imagination to the melancholy ballad the War Years, his voice is crystal clear and potent. The breathy, somewhat lo-fi approach of the past is replaced with a pristine production that puts the voice front and centre. Think Scottish bands of the late nineties such as Travis for a comparison, particularly on the opening song Living in Lightning.
2: The production. Triple Grammy Award-winning producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse, Norah Jones) and mastering engineer Emily Lazar (Beck, Coldplay) yield up exactly what you would expect from such an accomplished team. There isn’t a bit of noise anywhere and the performances are razor clear and everything is anthemic. This is the arena announcement from the band.
3: Why so glum chum? Yes, many artists spend the majority of their work focused on the dark and downer side of life. But after a full listen, you would be hard-pressed to find anything to buck up about. Love is difficult, madness is a mountain and Young Lovers ask: where did we go wrong/will there be a future to look back from? So, no, don’t crank up the volume waiting for something to make you smile.
4: Song of Unrest. Of course, one need only observe the world to appreciate the mournful state of affairs all-around. Green touches on this well in the seventh track, proclaiming Have I lost my touch/I want to fee less fear. Doesn’t almost everyone of late?
5: Lay Me Down. The final song is the longest on the record and one of the slowest-building ballads of City and Colour’s career. While not exactly Free Bird, you can totally imagine that this would be a good one to extend into an ethereal space jam in concert. Canadian dates begin on Nov. 8 at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria. Vancouver is Nov. 9 and the band ends its road trip on Nov. 29 in Halifax.
On the Hunt | iron-kingdom.com
Assigning the label traditional to this Vancouver metal quartet is entirely fair. From the cover that could have been by Frank Frazetta to the shrieking high register howling of the lead singer. His Rob Halford-by-way-of-Tygers of Pan Tang vocals and the power metal surges, impressed the judges on CTV’s Canada’s Got Talent who thought referencing the beginning days of the NWOBHM (New wave of British Heavy Metal was in the right place with an eighties revival looming. They certainly have tight chops. Come see for yourself as they play Oct. 3 at the Red Room. Tickets: vticonline.com.
North Star Calling | Diva Sound Records
Always a crack arranger, Yellowknife’s Gilday gets right to delivering the message of “the sound of the people rising up” in the opener Rolling Thunder. Combining the familiar rhythm of throat-singing matched with a hand drum to build into a bluesy shuffle, complete with metallic slide, is like some kind of new gospel style. She works in many styles, all with a heavy dose of blues and soul throughout the ten tunes and has penned an inspirational AOR ballad in the title track that deserves ample radio play. Live at the Transform: A Cabaret Festival in October. Tickets” Thecultch.com.
DSVII | Mute
It’s been a dozen years since the first instalment of this offbeat group’s Digital Shades project, which compiled outtakes that didn’t feel like they fit the French electronic composer Anthony Gonzalez’s vision for albums such as Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. That said, the album held up as its own thing and this latest 15 track set is better than the first. Perhaps that is because it was largely shaped by the composer’s passing obsession with 80s video game music, which he appears to have married with a dash of Brian Eno’s work with Jon Hassell and some surprisingly Satie-like moments (Jeux D’Enfants).
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The bass line that blasts off at the 1:15 point in the opening track You’ll Need A Backseat Driver is completely infectious. And bassist Todd Fancey just keeps dropping toe-tapping, driving riffs throughout the whole album. It’s another beautifully recorded record from the band, showcasing Carl Newman’s pop tune-smithing and exacting arrangements. Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile is highly recommended, otherwise it’s more of what fans have come to expect of this long-standing band.
sderdeyn@postmedia.com