CD Review
Issue date: 2/26/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
City and Colour
Bring Me Your Love
This record is heavy and Dallas Green is too young to be making it.
Five years ago, Warren Zevon released The Wind, a record he wrote knowing he was about to die from cancer. City and Colour's newest release, Bring Me Your Love, rivals that record in terms of weight. It's hard to know what pushed Green to write these songs, but one thing is certain: this is a depressing listen.
Of the album's 12 tracks, seven of them use one or more references to death and some of those that don't still refer to dying (see: second verse of "As Much As I Ever Could"). Two tracks in particular, "Body In A Box" and the disc's first single "Waiting...", are so deeply set in death that it's tough to find anything positive about them.
Now don't get this mistaken, Dallas Green is a talented motherfucker. He's an excellent guitarist and a great singer. His voice on Love shows much better control and in many cases, seems far less juvenile than his last record. It's just hard sometimes to get past the depressing nature. Even the choice of (open) tuning Green consistently uses lend itself to the dark tonality.
Somewhere within this, though, Green pushes for optimism. Both "The Girl" (presumably about his well-known relationship with a Canadian pseudo-celebrity VJ) and "Sensible Heart" are far less morose than the songs preceding; however, they are buried towards the back of the disk, making it difficult to shake the aforementioned thoughts.
The clear highlight here is the guest appearance of Tragically Hip singer Gord Downie, who lends his voice to the album's best song "Sleeping Sickness", but even that song's lyrical hook is "I am all alone" repeated. It's hard to say such shitty things about one of Canada's most talented musicians, which Dallas Green has proven he is, but it's even harder to get through this record without downing at least a dozen uppers first.
- Matthew Hadley
Bring Me Your Love
This record is heavy and Dallas Green is too young to be making it.
Five years ago, Warren Zevon released The Wind, a record he wrote knowing he was about to die from cancer. City and Colour's newest release, Bring Me Your Love, rivals that record in terms of weight. It's hard to know what pushed Green to write these songs, but one thing is certain: this is a depressing listen.
Of the album's 12 tracks, seven of them use one or more references to death and some of those that don't still refer to dying (see: second verse of "As Much As I Ever Could"). Two tracks in particular, "Body In A Box" and the disc's first single "Waiting...", are so deeply set in death that it's tough to find anything positive about them.
Now don't get this mistaken, Dallas Green is a talented motherfucker. He's an excellent guitarist and a great singer. His voice on Love shows much better control and in many cases, seems far less juvenile than his last record. It's just hard sometimes to get past the depressing nature. Even the choice of (open) tuning Green consistently uses lend itself to the dark tonality.
Somewhere within this, though, Green pushes for optimism. Both "The Girl" (presumably about his well-known relationship with a Canadian pseudo-celebrity VJ) and "Sensible Heart" are far less morose than the songs preceding; however, they are buried towards the back of the disk, making it difficult to shake the aforementioned thoughts.
The clear highlight here is the guest appearance of Tragically Hip singer Gord Downie, who lends his voice to the album's best song "Sleeping Sickness", but even that song's lyrical hook is "I am all alone" repeated. It's hard to say such shitty things about one of Canada's most talented musicians, which Dallas Green has proven he is, but it's even harder to get through this record without downing at least a dozen uppers first.
- Matthew Hadley
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