This newsletter is an extension of the 2022 Summer Album Guide, and will evolve to include writing about the community, the city and the world in areas other than hot vinyl and vital music. But for now consider it a gesture to continue the art of the album review, forever disappearing from our print newspapers. - Dave Bidini
If you want to subscribe to the print edition of the West End Phoenix, just head over to www.westendphoenix.com and subscribe for a full year of local, independent print journalism!
We just announced our new physical space! Read more about it HERE and come out for our launch party on March 4th, details HERE
Feist
Multitudes
The album is a few months away, but these three tracks allow a peak behind the curtain. The opening song— “In Lightning”— is included in the drip. From its backwards-sounding guitar solo to rickety side-stick rhythm to a snow globe of strings, the song scales a mountaintop of sound before retreating into sunken quiet, all within a handful of minutes. It’s a breath-taking first movement that’s followed carefully, cleverly, by “Love Who We Are Meant To,” whose Fado shapes return the listener to a familiar household of whispered beauty and acoustic intimacy. The subsequent track, “Hiding Out in the Open,” is a hybrid of both, where interlocking lead vocals evoke the multi-track singing of Marvin Gaye— shouts over spoken word over shanties— set to a sad finger-picking ballad that’s like Harry Chapin living in his car. If the sky’s the limit for this West End legend’s artful music, early returns promise big air.
Listen and purchase at Feist’s website HERE
Afternoon Bike Ride
Glossover
Despite— or rather because of— its sugary lightness, I kept coming back to this Montreal band’s sun-warped pop sensibilities, being, at first, seasonally mismatched with my winter tastes, but after a few listens, married to dreams of a vacation spent lounging on a white-washed pool deck; perhaps a place like The Raleigh in Miami, where, on a wall, there hangs a black and white photo of Pablo Picasso with his arm around David Lee Roth, both shirtless holding cups. A few years back, the Raleigh was savaged by a hurricane, and then sold to a hotel group, and it’s still too early to know which will cause the most damage— development is underway to build above and around the famous existing Art Deco structure— but spending time listening to the surf as a Canadian fleeing the frost is also close to what ABR aims for: acoustic colours swirling inside a cold cube of electronica; stockinged feet bouncing on a towel bouncing across sand; and melodies that seem, at first, too long in the hot sun, but after several listens, perfectly baked.
Listen on Afternoon Bike Ride’s Bandcamp HERE
Ron Sexsmith
The Vivian Line
Communism
Lovespeech
It was my band-mate, Tim Vesely, who first played us Ron Sexsmith in the van on our way to a gig in Waterloo. Our second drummer, Don Kerr, may or may not have been with us at the time, but my memory is jumbled considering that, for many years, Don was Ron’s main musical accomplice, travelling the world and making albums (that Tim would join them for a tour complicates a reliable assembly of these trysts). The music that came out of the speakers on that 401 drive— a demo cassette recording— proved immediately likeable, and despite our personally gymnastic approach to contemporary songwriting, everyone agreed that the songs were mature, skillful and good and that Ron’s voice fell perfectly on the demure, understated side of pretty. A lot has changed since then-- Ron’s new album is his 18th-- while, a few years ago, Don formed his own band, Communism, whose second record, Lovespeech, came out last week. I wish I had some new music to offer to tie together all threads, but this review will have to do.
We all want to see our friends happy and well, and it’s even better when those friends are happy and well doing what they love to do, and it’s even better when what they are doing is the best work of their lives. These records couldn’t be more different. “The Vivian Line” is a gorgeous (typically gorgeous, really) ode to the submission of contentment carried on Ron’s Catamaran vocals-- always smooth, moving over waves of stylish accompaniment-- and a sensibility that makes you understand why Sunday morning was invented. Communism’s record, on the other hand, is a gifted weekend dance/rock album that asks after that sense for contentment, or, rather, wonders if waving your hands and moving your hips isn’t a better way of settling an unsettled world. I’m admittedly biased, but Don’s singing is exceptional throughout, and if one musician’s voice has majestically aged into itself since those cassette days straight outta St. Catharines, the other is now discovering what it is and how it sounds over the same passage of time. Sometimes things turn out exactly as they’re supposed to.
Listen and purchase on Ron’s website HERE
Listen and purchase on Communism’s Bandcamp HERE
Pablo Picasso died in 1973. Are you sure it's David Lee Roth in the picture?