Like a daisy sprouting through a crack in the concrete, Dallas Green emerged from his post-hardcore brethren, Alexisonfire to become folk outfit City And Colour. Now, after eight years and three albums, City And Colour has won us over with a re-directed masculinity, trading thrash and anger for an acoustic guitar and a self-reflective folk sensitivity – it seems the only remnants of his past are the tattoos that poke out of his button-down shirt.
With the impending release of fourth album, The Hurry And The Harm, Green is back on the radar with Alex Newport (The Mars Volta) as producer and joined, among others, by Jack Lawrence from The Dead Weather on bass. Recorded over winter in Nashville, Tennessee it doesn’t grab you by the throat at first like 2011’s Little Hell did.
Having said that it was always going to be a hard act to follow with an opening song such as We Found Each Other In The Dark, but there are certainly echoes of the same self-conscious folk balladry as he mines emotional depths with breathtaking falsetto.
There’s a delicious country lilt on the title track and gorgeous backing harmonies notable on Paradise as Green gently refrains: “I’m searchin’ for a paradise that I just can’t seem to find”.
The Lonely Life ironically shows off the full band sound while first single Of Space And Time has beautiful sway, a sardonic lilt and is Green at his most poetic: “I don’t know what drugs to take / To successfully alter the state / That my mind has been in as of late.”
It’s hard to fault City and Colour; mostly because he never claims to be anything he’s not. Sure, it’s not groundbreaking stuff but it’s always personal and woundingly honest; “I’m not trying to be a revolutionary” sings Green on Commenters.
BY ADELAIDE FRENCH
Best Track: Of Space And Time
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: DAMIAN RICE
In A Word: Another winner.
