What with Michael Timmons’ day to day job as a ‘go to record producer’ it’s no wonder it’s over 5 years since Cowboy Junkies last album of new material; although their covers album RECOLLECTIONS was pretty damn good in every which way; but at RMHQ it’s ‘their songs’ we crave like a crack addict.
So it was with baited breath and a big mug of coffee that I tentatively pressed ‘play’ on the office Hi-Fi; as the Timmons siblings are more than capable of throwing us a curve ball … with great relief opening song What I Lost is as deep, dark and beautiful as any fan could hope for, with Margo’s stunning and distinctive voice as cool as ever, while Michael’s guitar playing swoops and soars with additional rumbling from the top end of the fret board unlike any of the Guitar Gods on the road today.
With that in mind; the opening to Track #2 Flood, is almost psychedelic …. even Gilmouresque; and continues throughout while Ms Timmons remains front and centre apparantly oblivious to the ‘wall of sound’ her brother is creating behind her.
While I can’t say I’ve liked every Cowboy Junkies album; like you can’t like every Neil Young album, as both are contrary at times; ‘never making the same album twice’ …. which is actually a good thing; and Such Ferocious Beauty is a perfect moniker for this particular bundle of songs, with the slow and acoustic Canadian Gothic song Hell Is Real being juxtaposed between the punchy Shadows 2; about the Timmins’s father falling deeper and deeper under the spell of dementia; and Circe and Penelope with it’s haunting harmonica and rustic acoustic guitars; which is one of their few songs this century that sounds anything like Trinity Sessions; but the addition of a cello halfway through takes it into a whole new stratosphere.
Even after four plays now; this album is still throwing up surprises; possibly because while I’ve been digesting one song it’s meant I haven’t always been listening intently to what follows; which is why the intense and simmering story in Throw a Match has just taken me by such surprise …. was it there this morning?
It must have been, but I couldn’t remember it from the first three plays.
Weird, I know … but that’s the Cowboy Junkies for you.
Tucked away in the middle is a very important song in the Cowboy Junkies canon of work; and that’s Knives. As intense and complex as you’d expect; but here the addition of a violin finds the band setting sail to unchartered territory …. and I love it.
There’s an all encompassing darkness, and even ‘fear’ (courtesy of some scary guitar playing!) to Mike Tyson (Here It Comes) but the sensitive way Margo delivers the story makes this a full on contender for being my Favourite Song; but the staggeringly beautiful Blue Skies with its birdsong opening and tender acoustic guitar accompaniment just about edges it out of that first place.
Yet, again there is another song here that has just unravelled and took my breath away; so I suppose I have to make Hard To Build. Easy To Break its equal and therefore a joint Favourite Song.
There are highs and lows here, darkness and light too and the three multi-talented Timmins siblings alongside lifelong friend Alan Anton are still pushing boundaries all the while; but you always know they will never over step the mark in the name of experimentation. (Rocking Magpie)
Such a unique band....thanks
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