Canadian Audiophile’s Reviews and News

February 3, 2010

Priestess – Prior to the Fire

Filed under: 2010, alternative rock, canadian content, heavy metal, music, rock, stoner metal — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 10:29 am

Priestess has made fans wait a long time for the follow-up to their 2006 debut, Hello Master, but the U.S. release of Prior to the Fire is finally here and it delivers the riff-heavy goods we’ve all come to know and love from this Montreal rock group.

Priestess certainly owes a lot of its chugging retro vibe to the pre-glam metal era, but Prior to the Fire finds the guys solidifying their sound a little to come up with a broader arrangement of tunes. The record swings out like a hulking epic, telling tales of retribution and passion amid a sea of deadly guitars.

The real shame of Prior to the Fire lies in the fact that it was actually completed and ready for release in 2008, but those bastards at RCA were reluctant to put it on the shelves. The fear was that the album lacked a “good single,” so the label put the band back to work at coming up with something for the “charts.” When that didn’t work out, RCA dropped Priestess and the four-piece was picked up by TeePee Records.

The rest, as they say, is fuckin’ history.

Prior to the Fire is the sort of record that requires high volumes and shirtless tees. It coasts through its 11 tracks with ease, all snaking riffs and thrashing drums.

The guitars of Mikey Heppner and Dan Watchorn do battle throughout the experience, scaling towers of melody with ferocity and fearlessness. Drummer Vince Nudo and bassist Mike Dyball fill things out with a harsh, thunderous attack.

Fittingly named “The Gem,” the record’s centerpiece is a furious, dashing sort of epic that revels in tempo shifts, volatile riffs and dramatic vocals from Heppner. Clocking in at a blistering eight minutes, the track bleeds screeching guitar and devastating drums together beautifully.

Album opener “Lady Killer” imposes its will with a surge of metal guitars evolving from the band’s desire to compose music about serial killers. “We set out to write a theme song for Jack the Ripper,” Heppner told Spin magazine.

Prior to the Fire is packed with crisp jams and lean cuts, splitting time squarely between the driving thrill of “Raccoon Eyes” and the surging spaciousness of “It Baffles the Mind.” The songs mesh together perfectly, creating a cloud of loud and fun rock music that any Sabbath or Maiden fan would do flips over.

RCA may have passed on Priestess and Prior to the Fire, but their loss is TeePee’s gain. This is a commanding, dynamic album that does everything but buckle under the load of its own awesomeness.

January 8, 2010

The Ten Best Canadian Albums of 2009

Filed under: 2009, canadian content, music — Tags: , , — Jordan Richardson @ 1:39 pm

2009 was an interesting year in Canada. Vancouver was plagued with a considerable amount of gang violence to start the year, while George W. Bush showed up in Calgary to speak. Barack Obama, meanwhile, became president in the United States and made his first visit to Canada in February. There was the tragic Newfoundland helicopter crash, too, and the first Canadian cases of swine flu that emerged in April.

2009 was an interesting year personally, too. I spent parts of it exhausted by my anxiety and by persistent panic attacks, learning more about my limitations and my expectations day by day. Friends saw horrifying times, with my best friend seeing the hope of fatherhood smashed against the rocks of tragic loss in just a few short, agonizing months.

In instances like these we look for meaning. We look to art, film, literature, music, sports, food, drugs. Some of us have the courage to look within ourselves for the help that we need, but for the rest of us we need the assistance of a well-worded lyric that cuts deep. Or we need the work of a dedicated actor with presence and timing. Or we just need a laugh.

Whatever we need and for whatever reason we need it, it’s always good to reflect back on years gone by and to remember what we needed most. I think that’s why we make year-end lists. I think we like to remember what touched us most and what helped us most and what made us smile most.

And so, for 2009 anyway, I decided to look back on what I found myself returning to most in terms of Canadian music. Year-end lists are, by no means, exact. It was hard to confine my list to ten and it was hard to keep up with everything this year, but time does pass and so, without wasting any more of your time, here are my picks for the 10 Best Canadian Albums of 2009.

10. In-Flight Safety – We Are an Empire, My Dear

This album caught me coming out of a drained period at the end of 2008 and gave me the boost I needed. The Halifax four-piece constructs pure, memorable, anthemic rock music and this record, their third, should help solidify them on the Canadian scene.

9. D-Sisive – Let the Children Die

Morbid and dark, D-Sisive’s rap lurks in the shadows. This Canadian rapper emerged from a six-year absence after his father’s death and after battling depression to turn out hip hop that is as real as humanly possible. Let the Children Die is an astonishing rap record.

8. K’Naan – Troubadour

This is an album of substance and of experience. The Somalia-born Canadian rapper expresses himself on Troubadour with necessity. He tells stories of Africa and of violence because he must. Troubadourreveals not just the soul of an artist who’s seen it all, but the spirit of a man who wants more.

7. Handsome Furs – Face Control

This Montreal “electro-punk” band surges forward on Face Control, leaving everything on the pavement for an album filled with fun, edgy hooks. The guitars are loud, the beats are solid and the husband/wife duo of Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry effortlessly out-stripe the White Stripes.

6. The Tragically Hip – We Are the Same

This record embodies hope. Gordon Downie comes up with some of his sharpest and most optimistic lyrics to date and the band’s ability to gather ‘round him and offer comfort shines through immensely. It is an easygoing, ultimately listenable record that is one of the band’s best in ages.

5. Timber Timbre – S/T

Spooky. Moody. Scary. Dark. Wet. This is swamp folk, I think, and Timber Timbre (Taylor Kirk) makes magic happen all over his self-titled record. Using a beat-to-shit guitar and deadly atmosphere, Timber Timbre will have you rethinking what blues can do.

4. Megan Hamilton – See Your Midnight Breath in the Shipyard

This is one of those records that stuck with me all year long. Hamilton actually recorded this thing in a shipyard, for starters, and uses all the sounds and textures that brings to tremendous effect. It helps that her songs are magical, touching, and captivating beyond belief.

3. Charles Spearin – The Happiness Project

The most interesting and uplifting record of the year. Ontario’s Spearin, most known for his work with Do Make Say Think, comes up with a brilliant concept and lets it live and breathe with little interference. The use of instruments to shadow human voices in conversation is astonishing.

2. Japandroids – Post-Nothing

Garage punk for the ages, Vancouver’s Japandroids nearly topped this list for good reason. This record is blistering fun. Set with screaming guitars and a punk sensibility that leaves a slick of cheap beer and smokes behind, Post-Nothing is your high school prom all over again. Or what you wish it was.

1. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

Hands down the most inventive, complex, beautiful record of the year. This is one for the ages. SR present a world that is accessible and yet ultimately self-sustaining, filling us with dreams and challenges that few others would ever subject their listeners to. It’s a challenge. A fucking awesome challenge.

Islands – Vapours

Filed under: 2009, alternative rock, canadian content, dance, indie, music, pop, synthpop — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 9:19 am

Vapours rolls in on waves of synth and percussion, offering us a slim and succinct bit of easygoing music from Montreal’s Islands. This record, their third, is a lot of fun to listen to and makes good on what singer Nick Thorburn wanted in terms of simplicity.

Vapours is built on a brand new line-up for Islands, as Thorburn took apart the group he used on Arm’s Way to head in a new direction for this record. Jamie Thompson returned to the outfit, too, and that scales things back significantly thanks to his use of drums and programming. The album feels leaner and meaner, fitting it right where it should be.

Melody is the order of the day with just about every single track on the record. Thorburn and Thompson make for a wicked cool songwriting team and Vapours really exhibits their flow eloquently. The songs venture just a tear or two past basic pop, unloading moments of truly heavy emotion and power.

“Switched On” is a bit of a triumphant starter, as though Thorburn and Thompson are throwing a big ol’ yacht party. The sequencing guides the song and a playful mesh of vocals carries things over the edge and into some seriously fun territory. It is a sign of things to come, boosting things with a flash of lean, fresh energy.

Whether they carry on with stripped-down pop (“No You Don’t”) or slippery Auto-Tuned tropical rock (“Heartbeat,” Islands’ penchant for adventurous glee is unmistakable.

But it’s tracks like “Disarming the Car Bomb” that really give Vapours weight. The track is immediately catchy and accessible, but Thorburn works with something more sinister here amid the sunny-sounding melody. “It’s taking too long,” he sings. “Something must be wrong.”

“On Foreigner” is an album highlight, sounding like a night-time horse ride through a neon forest. The swaying, easy cadence gives the song its movement, while twangy guitars and massive vocal harmonies gel the cut’s mood and texture. Thorburn’s singing is intimate, but he never restrains himself and never refuses an opportunity to be dramatic.

In the end, Vapours works because it puts Islands right back where they belong. These are delicate, simple pop songs that call up visions of Beach Boys and other harmonic outfits of kinder days. And, at the same time, the use of music and texture is something unquestionably modern and fresh.

January 7, 2010

Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

Filed under: 2009, alternative rock, art rock, avant pop, baroque pop, canadian content, experimental, experimental rock, indie, music, pop, rock — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 10:52 am

Sunset Rubdown opens one world and shuts down another all in the span of the few opening moments of Dragonslayer, crystallizing everything that makes the Montreal band art-rock gods and transforming it into easy, accessible, rich and adventurous pieces of work that meld together as one electric, exhilarating tale.

“I believe in growing old with grace,” vocalist and leader Spencer Krug pronounces boldly near the middle of “Silver Moons.” He has the conviction and zeal of a wide-eyed soapbox preacher at first, but then cracks of misery and openness emerge as he belts the second line: “I believe she only loves my face.”

This drama, this sort of spectacular immensity, infuses every single second of Dragonslayer. It turns each piece of music into an epic and transforms each word into a portion of some fantastical script. As listeners, we hold on tight to our armchairs and to our wine glasses and to our hearts while Krug unveils his obsessions, fears, complications, and ponderings.

As a record, Dragonslayer is both astonishingly complex and dangerously simple.

The complexity arises out of Krug’s tendency towards the metaphor. Lyrically he is full of them. Sometimes he is full of shit, too. His affinity to unfolding cavernous, shadowy metaphors to speak simple truths is part of the mystery that engulfs Dragonslayer, but his ability to break through the facade every so often with a couplet of aching ease is what keeps the flame burning.

The simplicity is in the theatrics of it all. Sunset Rubdown ventures down innumerable hallways of musical genres, never settling in one district for too long. There’s new wave to be found on “Idiot Heart,” for instance, and there are marches and bells hiding in the grain of “Silver Moons.”

This brave, uncomplicated presentation of music, of art, strikes at the very heart of the music lover in need of something diverse and honest.

At the same time, one can’t help but imagine that the simplicity and accessibility of this record came entirely by accident. Krug is locked in his world of dragons and power and magic and “Paper Lace” and doesn’t seem to care if we’re there to fish him out or not. That speaks truth to art, doesn’t it? And it creates a self-sufficient world whether we want it to or not.

In that respect, listening to Dragonslayer feels like listening in on a world that operates abundantly and truthfully with and without our sanction. As good as “Paper Lace” and the ten-minute “Dragon’s Lair” are as individual songs, for instance, they aren’t good for our sake and they don’t exist for our sake either.

Dragonslayer is one of the best albums of 2009, if not the very best. Bursting with drama and fantasy enough to fuel its own world and its own spirit, Sunset Rubdown’s fourth LP is a record that lives and breathes on your shelf and in your CD player long after the last track has trotted away.

January 6, 2010

Elephant Stone – The Seven Seas

Filed under: alternative rock, britpop, canadian content, indie, indie rock, music, pop, rock — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 5:57 am

Elephant Stone expresses a deep love for traditional pop tunes on The Seven Seas. The band, from Montreal, is led by Rishi Dhir and carefully blends traditional Indian music with the pop song sensibilities of The Beatles and The Kinks.

The blend works wonders, generously coating each track on The Seven Seas with a natural affection for the power of melody and for the magic of song. For a debut, this is a record of substance and style. It cements Elephant Stone as an interesting band in the Canadian musical landscape, solidifying their appeal across cultural lines thanks to their accessible and highly enjoyable work.

Dhir’s band, a brilliant amalgamation featuring members from The Besnard Lakes and the Dears, is concise and energetic. They breathe life into these songs, as they should, but they also help draw a wide spectrum of textures out of the mix thanks to their diverse backgrounds.

The real rush of The Sevens Seas is in the simplicity of the songs. At the root of this record is the concept of very basic pop. Built on classic chord progressions and clean instrumentations, the album’s slim 9 songs make for a finger-snapping, toe-tapping good time.

In the middle of the Stone Roses-esque buzz, Dhir and Co. toss in a sitar and a mass of 50s-style vocals to coat the sound in culture and nostalgia. The resulting stew is fun, fresh and uniquely Canadian.

“Bombs Bomb Away” opens the record with a catchy melody and marvellous backing vocals from Richard White and drummer Chris Wise. The mass of guitar twang urges the song forward, while Dhir’s vocals gently ground things. Oh, and there’s a sweet-ass old-school chord change too.

The glorious, optimistic pop of “I Am Blind” is an album highlight, while Dhir’s sitar takes centre stage and shifts the entire mood of the record on the terrific 7-minute “The Straight Line.” The diversity and contrast between these two songs probably couldn’t be starker, but Elephant Stone seems to thrive in this area.

At the end of the day, The Seven Seas stands as a terrifically fun pop record with tinges of Indian and Northern soul music. Elephant Stone deliver the goods, proving that good music can exist in any space and time.

Junior Boys – Begone Dull Care

Filed under: 2009, ambient, canadian content, chill out, dance, electronic, music, pop, techno — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 5:20 am

With carefully constructed beats and a nice, easy flow, Junior Boys’ Begone Dull Care isn’t particularly stacking up the critical accolades but it is a decent ambient/electronica album for the Ontario duo.

The “problem,” it seems, with Begone Dull Care, released in April of 2009, is that it’s not 2006’s So This Is Goodbye and that there’s no “In the Morning.” Have a cry, then. As great as that record was, the evolution of art is necessary (even if it is evil) and the Junior Boys prove that production is the thing with this follow-up.

If there was a fact of the matter here, it would be that Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus want to gear down and take a soft, fuzzy journey through that haze that lurks between dance and ambient music. Begone Dull Care is what lurks in that fog and it isn’t an album that moves or struts or races through the veins. It’s an album that sits, breathes.

So what do you do with an album that just sits there?

For starters, you soak it in. Junior Boys offer a lot of substance to soak in, surprisingly, and each beat and bleep is carefully and meticulously prepared. There’s a lot of purpose here, even if the results are somewhat murky, and that purpose helps showcase Greenspan and Didemus as more than just makers of Starbucks soundtracks for the laptop set.

Indeed, if this record proves anything by being a “lesser” work than So This Is Goodbye it would be that Junior Boys are honing and evolving their craft at an alarming rate. Greenspan and Didemus are not just careful with the production of Begone Dull Care; they are downright diabolical about it.

Take the way a song like “Dull to Pause” pours into existence as an example. Yes, that is a faint banjo you hear and, yes, JB does build on that loop with a majestic bit of sound that pulls a melody out of thin air. Listen to how each part of the song loops in, right on time, and how the beat’s consistency never overwhelms the track. Vocals are added, too, and beauty is born.

This is some careful, careful shit and that is both the album’s glory and the album’s undoing. For many, Begone Dull Care sounds so careful and so meticulous that is becomes boring. For others, those in love with how sound evolves and how it can move through soft, sexual moments to form music, it will be a fascinating bit of work.

Now Begone Dull Care is not JB’s best work, but it is a more profound one than many critics have given it credit for. Tracks like “Work” and the funky “Hazel” are great for night-time cruising, while the easy groove of “Parallel Lines” makes use out of hushed, breathy vocals.

Overall, Begone Dull Care makes for a sweet little exercise in record production and attentive song construction. Junior Boys haven’t reached the heights of So This Is Goodbye with this one, but that sure doesn’t stop it from being a charming, smooth entry in what will be an expansive and engaging discography from this Canadian duo.

January 5, 2010

Think About Life – Family

Filed under: 2009, canadian content, dance, experimental, music, pop — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 4:02 pm

There’s a certain gentle chaos to Family, the second full-length from Montreal’s Think About Life. The band, formed in 2005, approaches their craft with a sort of playfulness that proves contagious, blowing their tunes past the usual dance-pop range into a hyperactive heap of joyful racket that makes for perfect club music for thirtysomethings too old or too smart for the likes of Akon.

Using a perfect combination of synthesizers, guitars, samples, and beats, Think About Life hooks you in immediately and never lets up until the absurd pleasure rolls to a stop at the close of 2009’s Family.

Think About Life isn’t a particularly profound group, but the work of keyboardist Graham Van Pelt and vocalist Martin Cesar certainly pushes all the right buttons in their quest to groove the night away. Special Noise’s Greg Napier rocks the drums and Caila Thompson-Hannant handles the bass to fill out the band’s strong rhythm section.

The band released their debut album, a self-titled record, in 2006 on Alien8 Recordings. Family, the follow-up, carries that same unbridled energy, but it also hones some of Think About Life’s musical skills and builds on the chaos and spirit of the debut.

Their approach is daring, like a child inventing a whole new world with stuffed animals and pillow forts, and they manage to go beyond the rule of the “adult dance record” thanks to some serious dedication to tracing that intangible fun factor.

The greatness of Family really hinges on their energy as a unit and each song is comprised of infectious grooves that mine old-school hip hop and funk. Some cuts are a little sample-heavy, but that’s all a part of the exploratory spirit that keeps things interesting when less appealing bands would have traversed down safer roads.

“Johanna” boots things up appropriately, using funky-as-hell horns to guide this ship of merry fools right into a wallop of start-and-stop awesomeness. Cesar reaches up for a handful of high notes, resulting in a mischievous nod to Earth, Wind & Fire.

Cuts like “Havin’ My Baby” and “Sweet Sixteen” rev this party into the next gear. The band builds on delectable bass lines and samples to crank out cool and fresh party tracks that will have you longing for summer days, BBQs and gaudy umbrella drinks.

And “The Veldt” is playful and guitar-driven, making lots of use out of hints of Eastern music and vocal harmonies.

This is one Family that deserves to be cranked. Whether rolling to work clothed in standard issue suit and tie or kicking back in that magnificent do-it-yourself nightclub in your yard (or is that just me?), Think About Life’s second album is dance music for grown-ups. It’s cheerful, unique and, best of all, shitloads of fun.

December 29, 2009

Japandroids – Post-Nothing

Filed under: 2009, alternative rock, canadian content, garage punk, garage rock, music, noise, pop, punk rock, rock — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 6:05 am

Out of the rain-drenched Vancouver streets come Japandroids, a monstrous duo of art-punkers who spent most of 2009 burning up the blogosphere with their simple, energetic debut full length Post-Nothing.

Guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse met at the University of Victoria and sprouted a band. They spent a little while looking for a third member before deciding to effectively share the vocals. The decision works, offering the music a boisterous, anthemic feel due to Prowse and King’s exuberant, childish shouting.

After releasing a pair of EPs, Japandroids launched their first LP in Canada in April of 2009 and on an unsuspecting public in the rest of the world in August of 2009.

Post-Nothing, listening back to it now, is every bit the garage punk throwback it means to be. The songs are lean and mean, comprised of crushing guitars and hammering drums. There’s a gleefulness to the filth, too, as though each song is soaked in a slick of cheap beer, cigarettes and porno mags. And yet, through all the shit, there’s a tinge of hopefulness and love.

The record blazes through eight tracks with the exuberance of innocent, plucky punkass kids looking to have a good time with the dials turned up. Standing on a floor of crushed cans, Japandroids take to the business of rocking and leave the abrasive, seen-it-all pretentiousness at home. That’s a trick a lot of this year’s art-punkers could learn a lot from, isn’t it?

Post-Nothing unearths the true beauty of rock and roll and does so in an unashamed way, toying with us all the way through its set and treating us like doughy kids at a prom looking to snag a date before the last song trickles through the dilapidated speakers. In that sense, Japandroids pull off some fucking astounding shit.

“The Boys Are Leaving Town” introduces us to the design instantly. It’s as though Prowse and King have just stepped behind their instruments underneath that hefty slogan-bearing placard and plug in for the first time. Each song feels like this; each song feels like the first time.

“Wet Hair” carries it along, once more plunging us into the abyss where someone’s spiked the punch and all the cool kids are a lot more sincere than they ever let on. Listening to King and Prowse deliver the goods is instant nostalgia, with the vocals barely creepy through the urgent guitar and thrashing drums. The song’s sentimental edge is irresistible, too, like the cute girl you were too shy or drunk to talk to.

Post-Nothing is the nostalgia of the high school experience for losers and dweebs, but it’s also a spark of something utterly modern and fresh. Songs like “Heart Sweats” and “I Quit Girls” reflect, albeit simply, on what it means to be human and what it means to live.

With Post-Nothing, the Japandroids become part of rock’s meaningfulness in our day-to-day lives. This is a record that proves engaging and essential, like adding gobs of product to your hair to impress that special elusive somebody. It’s the sweaty palms, it’s the glance at your best friend’s mom’s boobs, it’s the half a beer you scored from your bearded neighbour. It’s your fucking life.

December 22, 2009

Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels

Filed under: 2009, alternative country, alternative rock, bluegrass, canadian content, folk, indie, music — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 7:40 am

One of the true wonders of Great Lake Swimmers’ Lost Channels is the texture the music picks up due to being recorded in the Thousand Islands area near the border. The Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago of 1,793 islands that straddles the Canadian and American border on the Saint Lawrence River.

The Great Lake Swimmers, Tony Dekker’s gang of folk musicians and shifty characters, builds marvellously off of the lost and hidden places in the Thousand Islands. Dekker’s songs capture the mystery and magic of the historic sites, churches and old castles that they were recorded in, offering natural quality that just can’t be replicated with studio magic.

Beyond the grain of the songs, though, is the melody of the songs. Great Lake Swimmers haven’t just recorded a gimmick record in hopes of hanging pedestrian, featureless indie tracks on the thriving authenticity of Singer Castle and other locations. Indeed, these are real songs and these are good songs.

Dekker’s songwriting is warm, rich and enticing. He’s planted the music in rich earth, letting the pieces grow strong roots and getting away from the precariousness of some of his earlier work. There’s confidence here, sure, but there’s also a desire to really accomplish something with this recording and Lost Channels moves quietly and purposefully as a result.

There are a host of musicians backing Dekker’s play here, from Julie Fader to Blue Rodeo’s Bob Egan, but Lost Channels is the singer’s show for the most part. He does well to split the album into sides, seemingly, and captures two distinctive elements on one record without sounding out of place.

The first portion, beginning with upbeat album opener “Palmistry,” takes off on a bit of an early R.E.M.-ish vibe and builds through a series of upbeat, full-sounding songs. “Everything is Moving So Fast” carries this on, using a lovely vocal performance by Serena Ryder to give it weight. And “The Chorus in the Underground” draws on an optimistic, jolly alt-country tone.

After the chilling “Singer Castle Bells,” Dekker’s Swimmers head off in another direction and gear down for the album’s second half.

Here, blue-collar heartache and melancholy form the order of the day. “Stealing Tomorrow” is a beautifully moving track, introducing us to the lower, hushed tones of Dekker’s voice. And “New Light” carries on the minimalistic theme with eerie guitar and banjo.

Lost Channels is a beautiful journey of a record, taking us island-hopping through the Thousand Islands with a case of beer and a sense of discovery. This is simple, straightforward folk played honestly and played well, but the richness and surface of the recording makes it more than that. Dekker’s songs allow us in, while the texture draws us further.

December 16, 2009

Charles Spearin – The Happiness Project

Filed under: 2009, avant pop, avant-garde, baroque pop, canadian content, experimental, music — Tags: , — Jordan Richardson @ 6:25 am

Ontario’s Charles Spearin is probably best known as the founding member of Do Make Say Think or as a part of the tremendous Broken Social Scene. He also contributes to Valley of the Giants, the post-rock supergroup.

As pronounced as his career has been thus far as a member of those aforementioned groups, there may be nothing more interesting and engaging than Spearin’s solo debut. The Happiness Project is a concept album, to be sure, and the concept is the pure, unadulterated pursuit of happiness through the exploration of rhythm, tone and mood in speech.

The concept for The Happiness Project is a simple and surprising one. Spearin interviewed people from his neighbourhood on the subject of happiness. In listening to the interviews after they were completed, the musician honed in on the natural sing-song quality of the voices and on the naturally occurring rhythms in speech patterns, seeking to blur the lines between speech and song.

The results are phenomenal, challenging and invigorating. The Happiness Project, through the use of instruments to accompany the interviews. At times we can barely hear the voices, shadowed as they are by elegant saxophone or piano. Sometimes Spearin will run a loop of a particularly melodic passage of speech, building a song with the atmosphere and cadence of the interview.

Pure joy keeps The Happiness Project from being another nutty experimental jazz concept album and makes it into a lush, joyful, profound piece of art. It is one of the best records of the year.

The songs are named for the interview subjects, with “Mrs. Morris” getting the distinct privilege of bookending the record. She offers uncomplicated, eloquent points about the nature of happiness, telling us that love is what truly matters and that we must love one another in order to truly love ourselves. Over her marvellously touching words, a tenor saxophone shadows her tone. “Good morning, what could make you so happy?” says Mrs. Morris. “Love.”

“Anna” has her voice mimicked by the sounds of a traditional jazz act, with a trumpet and piano playing with the rhythmic qualities of a repeated sentence. The piece dances away from Anna’s words teasingly, working easily into a fully realized melody from a few interesting notes.

Other pieces find Spearin electing to let the subjects speak for themselves. “Vanessa” builds on the subject’s sweetly musical accent and lets her speak before a well of touching sound springs up. And “Marisa” opens with a few seconds of atmospheric noise before the distant subject whispers through some mistakes and glitches. “Send me home,” she says and Spearin builds on the cyclic rhythms.

While The Happiness Project might not be for everyone, its appeal is actually broader than one might think. Spearin’s exploration of the human voice’s natural inflection and tenor is fascinating, enlightening us as to the splendour and warmth that exists in the most innocent of phrases and sentences. A bold, profound, stunning project, this record represents the purity, minimalism and truth of great art.

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