Whitehorse – Leave No Bridge Unburned
Baby what’s wrong
I’m afraid to ask you
Tell me what did I do?
That is the plaintive refrain of the opening track of Leave No Bridge Unburned, a call and response between Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet, the married couple who consitute the entirety of Whitehorse. I’ve got an easy answer for the two of them: there’s nothing wrong with this album, which goes a long way towards cementing Whitehorse’s reputation as one of the best new bands to emerge from anywhere in the last few years.
The album’s lead single is “Downtown”, a song which might be the best two minutes and 47 seconds of twangy rock and roll you’ll ever hear. It’s a rollicking, cacophonous mix of fast-paced drums, Doucet’s killer guitar work, McClelland’s keyboards, and the kind of weird lyricism the band is known for. “I’m electrified / by the city lights” is how it opens, before quickly moving through a complex love affair and ending with its aggressive chorus of “I’m living downtown / and it’s killing me.” There may never have been a more perfect song to throw on the car stereo as you slip onto the highway on your way out of the city — and back into it later. Just make sure you’ve got the volume dialled all the way up to 11.
The album does a fine job of showcasing Whitehorse’s full range. Quieter moments like “Fake Your Death (And I’ll Fake Mine)” and “Dear Irony” allow the duo’s well-regarded lyricism to shine through more obviously than the faster paced material. It’s the album’s faster moments that seem destined to make the next tour a don’t-miss affair. Whitehorse has always been even more impressive live than they have been on record: I dare you to not have a good time when the tour hits your town. (Doubts? You can read my review of one of the bands very first live shows here.)
Since their debut as a band in 2011, Whitehorse has maintained an impressive pace, releasing an album of some sort a year. While the band’s eponymous first album produced some classic sounds, it also seemed a bit like two great solo artists decidig to record togehter. This isn’t the case with Leave no Bridge Unburned, which sees the band’s sound having evolved to the point where it’s almost impossible to distinguish between Doucet and McClelland’s contributions. That’s a good thing, because it promises a future of even more killer music and, as Six Shooter Records slogan says … “Life’s too short to listen to shitty music.”
You can order Leave No Bridge Unburned directly from Six Shooter in just about every format you want, including vinyl. If your local record store doesn’t have it, find a new record store–or try iTunes. Whitehorse are playing just about everywhere in North America through to the end of May. You’ve got no excuse to miss them.
Steve Earle – Terraplane
During his Townes tour, I heard Steve Earle describe the perfect structure of a three-bar blues song saying, roughly, “The first verse will describe a problem. In the second, the man will reiterate the problem.” It’s almost always a man when it comes to the blues, isn’t it? “In the third verse,” Earle continued, “the man will propose a solution to the problem. The solution will completely fail to solve the problem described.”
It was a funny moment, and one that served as a reminder that Earle is steeped in songwriting lore.
Terraplane sees Earle putting on his blues hat intentionally: he’s said that his intent with this album was not only to record an album of blues songs he’d written but also to produce a couple of songs that real blues guys might want to record.
On the first note, it’s easy to say he’s succeeded. Terraplane is Earle’s 16th studio album and it fits nicely into the canon of late-career Earle. The focus here is on simplicity of arrangement, with none of the hard-driving guitars and rhythms that you might find in albums like I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive or Copperhead Road. Much of the album was written while Earle was on tour in Europe with nothing but a guitar, a mandolin, and his backpack.
There’s classic material here: close your eyes and it’s easy to imagine sitting around a radio on a warm summer evening, listening to the lo-fi “Baby’s Just as Mean as Me,” a song that seems destined to become a standard on A Prairie Home Companion. “The Tennessee Kid” sees Earle in spoken word mode telling the tale of Robert Johnson’s deal with the devil. That three bar blues song Earle described once? It shows up here at least once as “The Usual Time” — and it’s great.
It’s tempting to read a lot into Earle’s embrace of the blues at this point in his life. He’s 60 now, entering his senior years, and in the process of going through yet another divorce. Terraplane isn’t that album. If it contains moments that can be read as reflecting recent events in Earle’s life, that’s because the songs reflect Earle’s belief in the universality of blues music. These aren’t songs about his life, they’re just songs about life — and a fine collection of them at that.
Terraplane can be ordered directly from New West Records on CD, as a download or on Vinyl. Steve Earle’s tour schedule hasn’t been fully announced yet but dates will be posted on the New West site.
