Canada Day With Deadmau5 and the City Streets

Two Canadian acts reviewed by one Canadian critic–

So for those of you expecting me to do an all-Canadian music review in honour of Canada Day…I guess you got it.  Through no deliberate design on my part, both CDs I picked up this week are by some home-grown Hosers.

Deadmau5: At Play Vol. 3

The third compilation in Progressive House virtuoso Deadmau5’s ‘At Play’ series seems mainly composed of tracks off of 2006’s ‘Vexiliology’, and 2008’s ‘Random Album Title’.  Everything here is instrumental Prog House / Ambient sounds that we’ve heard before, just recycled here for the sake of a third installment.

Disappointing to me is that I’ve heard all this before – long before Deadmau5 was spinning wax.  I have to go back 10 years in my music collection, but Astral Projection’s ‘In The Mix’ and Paul Van Dyk’s ‘Out There And Back’ from 2000 could easily be the templates used by Deadmau5 when crafting this 10-song mini compilation.

There are, nevertheless, some good songs here.  The versions of “Lai”, “Bounce”, “Templar” and “Whispers” are worthwhile. However, it must be said that the generic nature of the music as compiled here just make it very hard to be in any way enthusiastic about the album.  The music here just seems uninspired, not very innovatively handled and just not quite up to my expectations from Deadmau5.

Deadmau5: At Play 3

Ultra

Steve’s Rating: 7/10

The City Streets: The Jazz Age

I don’t know what it is about Canadian Rock acts being so morose or melancholy, but we’re so good at it up here!  Relying on heavy treble, their music spliced from Blues and Grunge Rock, ‘The Jazz Age’, the City Streets’ third album in 5 years is firmly rooted in the deepest tradition of mournful Rock.

Opening with the poetic and poignant lyrics of “Midnight Sun”, the tone is quickly set on this album.  This is going to be music about heartache and regret, of romance and pain…of everything that has made good music since Mankind started singing.

It isn’t all depressive ballads.  The weirdly funny and TMI-rife “Irish Rose” takes a bit of a Brian Setzer / Stray Cats detour around Bluesville, giving us quirky little two-step of a tune.  “Young Runs Out” has got to be my favourite here; just for the way the imagery of the lyrics blends with the ebb and flow of the subdued guitar on the piece.

The whole of ‘The Jazz Age’ makes for a very powerful, albeit understated and low-key album; one made for serious music fans that’s still accessible to casual listeners.  Definitely going to be a darling of the Coffee House scene, but don’t hold that against this one.

While ‘The Jazz Age’ might be the most assertive album you’ll listen to this year, it’s well worth picking up; play it when you have some quiet time in a chair with a cuppa something warm…see if you don’t enjoy it as much as I expect you will.

The City Streets: The Jazz Age

Clamour Records

Steve’s Rating: 9/10

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