The Sigla Blog

CITY AND COLOUR
Bring Me Your Love
Hassle
***

It seems that Devonte “Lightspeed Champion” Hynes isn’t the only musician to kick his way out of noisy chrysalis and metamorphose into a folksy butterfly. Also changing course and flapping his acoustic wings is Dallas Green, former member of post-rockers Alexisonfire. Under the City and Colour moniker (a pun on his name), Green gets back both to basics and nature. These 12 tracks come off as plaintive prairie tales, a hitchhike across a vast canvas of yearning and regret. When he’s on form, it’s as good as Neil Young’s campfire moments, but too many of the tracks peter out into forgettable almost-rans. What binds it all together is Green’s voice, which is soft, melodic and wide-ranging. Musically, it’s distilled down to acoustic guitars and a hint of percussion, as on the haunting ‘The Girl’. There’s much to like here, but inconsistency undermines its finer moments.

Download Tracks: ‘Confessions’, ‘The Girl’

Website: www.cityandcolour.ca