This week's feature: Entire Cities

Entire Cities, Deep River (Self-released)

WHO

Countrified Toronto pop collective.

DISCOGRAPHY

Centralia (Self-released, 2007)
Deep River (Self-released, 2008)

IN A NUTSHELL

Forget 2008; Deep River makes a strong bid to be one of my favourite albums of all time.

THE STORY

As anyone reading this blog can probably tell, I loved Entire Cities' debut EP, Centralia -- and I mean really, really loved it. But there's no way I'd ever argue that it's a perfect album, no matter how many times I've listened to it over the last year. After all, the production was a bit shabby in places, and the album's overall flow was inhibited by the placement of African field recordings at the end of each track. On top of that, the band's ever-shifting line-up meant that it was often difficult for the EP's moments of brilliance to translate to a live setting (though this isn't really a problem with the recording of Centralia, and it should also be noted that it wasn't a problem that manifested itself too frequently in the countless times I've seen them over the last year).

I say all this because I want to make it perfectly clear that I'm not blind to any faults Entire Cities may possess. However, when it comes to their newest release, Deep River...let's just say that I'd really, really have to stretch to find a single thing wrong with it. I mean, in light of the fact that Deep River has a couple of songs that were also on Centralia, it's too bad that they didn't include the magnificent "Marshall's Five Lost Years", but as complaints go, that one falls into the realm of just complaining for the sake of it. And, quite honestly, Deep River is far too amazing for me to do something like that.

Seriously, there's not a single thing wrong with Entire Cities' sophomore outing. The production is outstanding, as getting into a studio with Dale (Great Lake Swimmers, Gord Downie) Morningstar did wonders for the band's sound; he seems to have drawn out every last bit of accordion and banjo and saxophone that goes into making the band's brand of country-folk-pop so much fun. Moreover, without the myriad instruments competing for space, not only is frontman Simon Borer able to give his lyrics the kind of gusto they deserve, the backing vocals are able to shine through and accent what he's doing. Of course, this, in turn, highlights another area of improvement: Lindeman and bassist Brendan Howlett both seem to have played a much bigger role in Deep River's production than they did with Centralia (in Howlett's case because he wasn't yet in the band at that time), and you can hear a tangible difference. Lindeman's whispery vocals are the perfect counterpoint to Borer's gruff baritone, while Howlett's scream in "Accountant's Dream" perfectly punctuates the song's shift from slowly-building folk tune to full-on cacophony of noisy fun.

Most importantly, the eight songs here are simply great, and as engaging and catchy and near-perfect as anything I've ever heard. "Talkers", for example, Borer captures the essence of joy about as perfectly as anyone I've heard outside of a religious context, when he sings "Talkers keep on saying things like, 'You'll be alright' / Talkers keep on saying things like, 'Praise nature'/ And I've been shouting out, "I have new words" (though he comes pretty close to religion when he sings "In the bowels of the hall of records north of the city / Lie signs and symbols waiting to be assigned / There are names I thought of long ago, before I learned to crawl / Names I want to call you by, and names for God"). He's able to perfectly weave prose and poetry on "Cop Song" and "Coffee", he picks up the religious theme without being too overt with it on "waiting", and when he (and the rest of the band) shout out "I'm my brother's snakeskin motherfucker / And we are blood" on "Dancing With My Brother", it's equal parts old-tyme revival and rowdiest juke joint in the Old South, and it's as exhilarating as it was on Centralia (but with the added benefit of sounding about ten times as clear and crisp).

Now, I know that music writing often has a pretty strong (and well-deserved) reputation for hyperbole, and that goes at least quadruple for blogs. But I can state without an ounce of exaggeration or hyperbole or any kind of negative connotations that my big question for Deep River is whether I'll still be listening to it in ten years, rather than ten months. I certainly hope so, because albums this amazing/wonderful/superb/whatever-other-positive-adjective-you'd-ever-want-to-affix-to-an-album don't come around very often, and I sincerely hope that in a decade I'll still be able to appreciate something that strikes me as deeply as this one does.

Want to win a copy of Deep River? Thanks to Entire Cities, i(heart)music has a copy to give away! To enter to win, just e-mail me your name and address, and I'll select a winner randomly!