city and colour

anberlin / augustana / city and colour / copeland / jack's mannequin / the dodos / the new frontiers / thrice / tiger lou / year 2008 / yoav — No Comments
6
Jan 09

Top 10 of 2008: New Releases

Making a Top 10 list is practically a requirement when you have a music review blog, but it can also be a nuisance since people usually judge you based on your list. Regardless, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, chances are very high that you know exactly what albums I’m going to include. If not, here’s a hint: go to the sidebar and check out all the 2008 releases that I gave 4.5 stars or 5 stars.

So here’s the best of what I managed to review:

  1. The New Frontiers – Mending
    indie, acoustic (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    I simply can’t say enough about this album. It’s not very inventive lyrically or musically, but it’s been compelling enough that I returned to this album time and time again. It doesn’t matter what mood I’m in or what song I just listened to – the minute something from Mending came up on my shuffle, I was swept away. The fact that The New Frontiers have broken up so soon after its release makes Mending almost iconic.

  2. Copeland – You Are My Sunshine
    indie/alt pop (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    While I wasn’t so enthusiastic about this album when I first heard it, it’s certainly grown on me. Every time I hear something from it, I’m struck by a certain lyric or a nuance that I’d never heard before. While Copeland is certainly branching out into new directions, they do so very convincingly.

  3. City and Colour – Bring Me Your Love
    folk (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    I’m convinced that Dallas Green is physically incapable of writing a truly upbeat song, but this album was a strange mixture of the ironic and the depressing. I still haven’t wrapped my mind around it completely.

  4. Anberlin – New Surrender
    alternative rock (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    This album takes the prize of Surprise of the Year. I’m a self-proclaimed Anberlin fan, but even I didn’t expect the second half of this album. Interestingly enough, it works. I’d love to see where these guys go from this excellent start.

  5. Thrice – The Alchemy Index Vol. 3 & 4
    alt rock, acoustic, folk (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    This album is a revelation when one considers its source: a post-hardcore band expanding its horizons. Lacking the insipid love songs that we’ve grown accustomed to on the radio, this album would have been more talked about than Radiohead’s In Rainbows had all four volumes been released at once. As it is, these last two volumes are simply brilliant.

  6. Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger
    piano rock (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    “The Resolution” is, and will always remain, the best anthem to come out of this decade. I also enjoyed the fact that McMahon returned to his roots in pop/punk, because too much acoustic just wasn’t good for him.

  7. The Dodos – Visiter
    alternative, folk (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    As an eclectic mixture of the unexpected and the familiar, Visiter is the layman’s version of Portishead’s Third. Honestly, that fact alone makes me love this album even more. Portishead, take note.

  8. Yoav – Charmed & Strange
    alternative/indie pop (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    Simplicity in lyrics and form haven’t failed the music scene yet, and here’s another prime example. Yoav’s voice is a bit too stretched at times, but the album as a whole is a noteworthy debut.

  9. Tiger Lou – The Loyal
    indie-rock, alt pop (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    Although it was originally released in 2005, The Loyal was released in the U.S. via Eyeball Records this year, and gave me a newfound respect for that label. The songs here are repetitive but not at all tiring. I have to get my hands on some of their newer stuff.

  10. Augustana – Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt
    roots rock/piano rock (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    This country-tinged sophomore album by Augustana might not have garnered as much attention as it deserved but it’s getting its due here. Here’s a return to the basics in a laid-back California/Texas style. Yeah, I don’t get it either, but that’s what it is, isn’t it?

Here are some other releases (in alphabetical order) that you should check out:

Boris Smile’s Beartooth EP
Dido’s Safe Trip Home
Driver F’s Chase The White Whale
The Duke Spirit’s Neptune

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2008 / 5 stars / city and colour / reviews — 1 Comment
23
Sep 08

Bring Me Your Love (2008) by City and Colour

Genre: folk
Rating:
Check Out: “What Makes A Man,” “As Much As I Ever Could,” “Waiting…,” and “The Death of Me.”
myspace

City and Colour was originally a solo effort by Dallas Green of Alexisonfire, a rock band far more popular to our northern Canadian neighbors than here in the U.S. If you’ve heard anything by Alexisonfire, the idea that a lead singer could actually pass off an acoustic album successfully on his own would seem ludicrous. Yet, that’s exactly what Green did in 2005′s Sometimes.

Fast-forward three years later, and we have another album from Green on his new label Vagrant Records. The years have not only added maturity and confidence to Green’s voice and delivery, but it’s added a raw aspect to his lyrics that are completely unexpected and not entirely welcome the first time through.

Sometimes was an album filled with what felt like acoustic versions of successful alternative songs – in other words, the songs could have easily passed as alternative if they had been produced that way. Yet Bring Me Your Love is a true folk album. These songs aren’t merely acoustic, they’re catchy in their own right and feature arrangements one could easily find in any folk musician’s repertoire.

What sets this album apart from other folk albums are the lyrics. There were times when I listened to these songs that I felt I had an indecently intimate view of Green’s mind and heart, which is something I can’t say I’ve felt in a very long time. To top that, Green has ironically written dark lyrics for his peppier tunes and happier (or at the very least, peaceful) lyrics for his slower, introspective songs. The juxtaposition of happiness and absolute sadness is guaranteed to leave any listener in a quandary. But that’s the beauty of the album, and that’s the beauty of City and Colour. I wouldn’t be surprised if this album survived the test of time to become nearly infamous thirty years from now – it’s that good.

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city and colour / singles / video — No Comments
20
Sep 08

Music Video: “Waiting” by City and Colour

This was the first single from Dallas Green (of Alexisonfire fame) and his new album, Bring Me Your Love. Not only is the album nothing short of amazing, but this single is really great too. Despite its peaceful sound, pay attention to the lyrics – they might surprise you.

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