Blue Rodeo - Can't Help Wondering
I'm back. Pardon, but I was overworked and depressed, and this song, and its parent album, were my attendant company.
I saw this band live a few years ago. I can't remember in what capacity, but they weren't the headline act. I'd heard people outside muttering "I've heard they're, y'know, country.". There may or may not have been grimaces, but as this was during the last days of my indiehood, I couldn't really bear to look at the indie kids up close.
They were good, too. One particular song, which I thought may have had something to do with rain in the title, had this magnificent, insistent bass-line that stuck in my head, and even if the keyboard player didn't seem to add anything texturally to the songs, he was having a whale of a time doing whatever he was doing and I enjoyed it. I suppose it's because I don't live in Canada, where they're an institution. And not particularly loved by the cognoscenti.
But fuck a cultural cringe, anyway.
I love this band like an out-of-fashion Canadian, even though I'm only the former. I love how this song is a precisely plotted piece of lamentation that resolves, and ultimtely means nothing. I love the extended pronunciation of "I", rendered as "Ay-hay!" (could have done better things, indeed). I adore how the chorus breaks down into a series of repetitious, yet soothing platitudes. I like how it's gruff enough to be real, but not so much as to scare me off.
It's comforting music. It reminds of other things. The second song off their current album, the opening reminds me a bit of "Don't Fear The Reaper". I couldn't tell you what this reminds me of, but its recycled two-pint feelgood may be as cliched as the reassuring words of a friend, but we treasure those, not reject them.
[MP3]
I saw this band live a few years ago. I can't remember in what capacity, but they weren't the headline act. I'd heard people outside muttering "I've heard they're, y'know, country.". There may or may not have been grimaces, but as this was during the last days of my indiehood, I couldn't really bear to look at the indie kids up close.
They were good, too. One particular song, which I thought may have had something to do with rain in the title, had this magnificent, insistent bass-line that stuck in my head, and even if the keyboard player didn't seem to add anything texturally to the songs, he was having a whale of a time doing whatever he was doing and I enjoyed it. I suppose it's because I don't live in Canada, where they're an institution. And not particularly loved by the cognoscenti.
But fuck a cultural cringe, anyway.
I love this band like an out-of-fashion Canadian, even though I'm only the former. I love how this song is a precisely plotted piece of lamentation that resolves, and ultimtely means nothing. I love the extended pronunciation of "I", rendered as "Ay-hay!" (could have done better things, indeed). I adore how the chorus breaks down into a series of repetitious, yet soothing platitudes. I like how it's gruff enough to be real, but not so much as to scare me off.
It's comforting music. It reminds of other things. The second song off their current album, the opening reminds me a bit of "Don't Fear The Reaper". I couldn't tell you what this reminds me of, but its recycled two-pint feelgood may be as cliched as the reassuring words of a friend, but we treasure those, not reject them.
[MP3]
posted by Edward O at 10:42 AM
3 Comments:
Hey, I'm a Canadian, and I didn't know Blue Rodeo weren't cool anymore. Five Days In July is killer.
I always had this idea that they were totally uncool. I am happy to hear that they ARE cool. (Well, I don't consider them alt-country). I'm actually very fond of "Are You Ready", as I am of all the other stuff I've heard, much of wish I've fished out of bargain bins.
i first grabbed a disc in a bargain bin in aberdeen and played it to death. Then i saw e=them on CMA and thought they were a bit too cross over for my liking. However I do rate them and its good to hear some country twangaroorockadillo instead of lots of radiohead remixes and home recordings that sound like they have been recorded in a well. xcellent blog by the way..keep it countrry
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