I have good news and bad news. Bad news: Departing doesn’t blow the first Rural Alberta Advantage album out of the water like some of us were hoping. Good news: it’s still pretty great.
I often think of RAA as beat centric folk music. I’m pretty sure this has more to do with the way the drums on the first album, Hometowns, were placed higher in the mix than anything else. It was something that took me a half dozen listens to notice (never call me perceptive), but quickly became one of my favorite things about the album. It’s something that can be heard to a certain extent on the second song, “The Breakup”, but it’s mostly dispensed with here. “The Breakup” is a wistful (this band does a lot of wistful) song about the end of a relationship. The drums kick aggressively against a single mournful keyboard chord before the vocals. The way the lyrics are sung reminds me of old Death Cab. “I held you tight. We were waiting for the breakup.” My heart breaks a little each time I listen. These are sad songs sung as anthems.
My favorite track is number three, “Under the Knife”. Its folk music you can dance to, I swear to god. The beat plays against keyboards and the vocals are slightly nasal, but totally gorgeous. “Oh, the kids are never right. Oh, the kids will never find us”. I’ve listened to this song something like thirty times in the last couple weeks, and it’s already made its way on to one mix. It’s definitely the best thing here.
Track four is “Muscle Relaxants”, and finally a fast one. It’s a song about drugs and, of course, love. The electric guitars twitch, the drums kick, and the whole song kind of swings.
The only thing I don’t really like here is “Goodnight”, the final track. It feels a bit unfinished, and kind of annoys me. It’s an acoustic number that doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s a weak finish to a pretty enjoyable album.
This is recommended, for sure. It doesn’t really light anything on fire, but it’s pretty soothing. If RAA do the same thing for a couple more records, I might get annoyed, but as a sophomore record it works. They’ve found a sound and they’ve settled into it. I just hope next time they bring more to the table. I’d love to be as excited about their next album as I was about their first album.
Track Listing:
01 Two Lovers
02 The Breakup
03 Under the Knife
04 Muscle Relaxants
05 North Star
06 Stamp
07 Tornado ’87
08 Barnes’ Yard
09 Coldest Days
10 Good Night
