01 June 2011
In a day and age where synths and autotune are king, City and Colour has managed to redefine the concept of musician. Not for pioneering reasons or state of the art developments, but for heading back to lo-fi basics and offering a collection of songs that are both poetically and aurally honest.
For as good as predecessors, Bring Me Your Love and Sometimeswere, Little Hell embodies a giant leap forward for Dallas Green (who is wholly, City and Colour). Recorded entirely on analogue tape, each track laid down in just one take, without the luxury of an isobooth, the record emanates a profound energy that spills through and from each song. Green has sewn together an assemblage of 21st century revolt that will surely be unparalleled this year.
Album opener, We Found Each Other In The Dark delivers one calming hook of cadence after another. Setting the tone of vulnerability versus responsibility, Green’s honeyed voice flows effortlessly over the beachy guitars and simple keys.
Astonishingly, the next song and the rest of the album follows in this same line of quality. The burden of picking a standout track is only made a little lighter with Northern Wind; silky vocals, congruous percussion and even a hint of cello all melt harmoniously behind Green. Both lyrically and atmospherically, Northern Wind is Little Hell’s version of Bring Me Your Love’s The Girl. Women everywhere will fall more in love with Green for this track whist simultaneously hating his wife for being the muse.
Fragile Bird, also inspired by his wife, is still receiving Australian radio rotation after being picked up by Triple J in April. Green pushes his addictive trill into Alexisonfire territory, he sings of his wife’s night terrors over fusing blues guitars which reverberate through staccato keys and an open-aired tambourine beat.
O’Sister is Green’s way of coping with his sister’s mental illness before she overcame it herself. The lack of isobooths is perfect here with the sound of fingers sliding through every chord change and the wailing of Green’s voice which radiates with both worry and strength. It’s accessible blues; depressing yet catchy, isolating yet strangely calming.
The Grand Optimist in an ode to his father, Green still brings forward the same raw emotion felt across the whole record but this time he’s more assertive in his opinion, “this is not a cry for pity or for sympathy,” he sings.
Final track Hope For Now puts heavy onus on Green’s voice and poetry, swaggering guitars and drums take a backseat as he sums up his own little hell through subtle roars of self-deprecation.
In an interview with TMN, Green said of the track, “that song is about how no matter how many records I sell, no matter how many people come to my concerts or tell me that they like what I do, for some reason I still don’t have that much faith in myself. There’s a line in the chorus that goes: ‘how can I instil so much hope, but be left with none of my own.’ It’s a question I ask myself a lot.”
Little Hell is an album that’s impossible to grow out of. For a year that has brought us many gems already, it’s possible Dallas Green may have outdone them all.
Little Hell is out June 10 through Shock Records.
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