Tuesday 01 March 2011
North stars
After having listened to Departing for the first time, start to finish without interruption, I sat in the quiet of my living room, absorbing the last pulsing sound waves from the speakers, processing the experience. I wasn’t disappointed with the record, far from it actually. I have been anticipating the return of The Rural Alberta Advantage for over a year, and the follow up to their debut Hometowns more than lived up to my expectations.
It was in that stillness after the record was done, when I would normally have gone back and listened to the record again from the start, that I realized what I wanted to do was listen to it again, but I wanted to listen to it and Hometowns, back-to-back, chronologically. I made an iTunes playlist of the two albums together and set about for another play-through. Departing and Hometowns are like puzzle pieces that snap together perfectly. They are not exactly alike; each has its own curves, its own colours and textures. But together, they’re building a bigger picture, one that will eventually be completed with each successive record.
On Departing, Nils Edenloff’s songwriting and singing is as sharp as ever, Paul Banwatt’s drums are still the propulsive backbone to the band, and Amy Cole’s keyboards shimmer and sparkle as they add that extra special something on songs like “North Star”. If anything’s changed it’s that they’ve honed their sound and style into a sharper, more focused collection of songs (maybe a reason why the album is only 10 songs and 32:48 long). There’s moments like “Barnes’ Yard” and “Under The Knife” that jump out as examples of the band’s experimentation and playfulness, but ultimately, what The Rural Alberta Advantage has done is crafted another vibrant and electrifying record in the vein of their last, but with a life all its own.
Now, when I get to “Good Night”, Departing‘s aptly titled closing song, I start imagining what the opening bars of album number three will sound like, and how it will fit together with the first two pieces. However, there’s no need to get so far ahead of myself, as Departing offers more than enough to feast on for now.
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp from Saddle Creek on Vimeo.
Departing is released by Paper Bag Records in Canada and Saddle Creek Records in the U.S., and is available in stores today, March 1.
MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage “Stamp”
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 at 8:35 am and is filed under MP3, QBiM SPiNS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
