CITY AND COLOUR - Little Hell

Emo applied to folk-rock. There's a basic rule in any recipe: a single poorly executed step, one ingredient used too heavy-handedly, can ruin the whole dish. Unfortunately that's precisely what happens on the third album by City And Colour, the folk-rock project of Dallas Green, already known as frontman of Alexisonfire.

Having established himself on the indie singer-songwriter scene in 2006 with the release of "Sometimes", which earned him the Juno Award for songwriter of the year, the Canadian now fleshes out his acoustic serenades with a full band.

The problem plaguing "Little Hell" is its attempt to chase the mirage of singer-songwriter sensitivity using the tools of a tattoo slogan (the opening "We Found Each Other In The Dark" is already an ominous promise). The album's clumsy romanticism comes through not only in the lyrics but above all in Green's singing style, which overflows with an embarrassing fervor, weighing down a work that is at times pleasant and inspired, at least in terms of songwriting and arrangements.

Green shows a certain command of chord work, giving his acoustic guitar a crisp strum ("The Grand Optimist"), paired with an extremely "classic" electric backing that nonetheless gets swept up in waves of overwrought emotional rhythm ("Sorrowing Man", "Hope For Now").

As rough-edged as it is (compared to certain slicker productions, definitely a plus), "Little Hell" has its own vivid power, even if it too often loses its sense of restraint, ending up as a perfect radio-friendly product in its emotional easy listening. Even though it nails a pop track like "Natural Disaster" — where our man finally shows a bit more finesse, as he does in the acoustic-and-viola duet "Northern Wind", if you pretend not to understand the English lyrics — what condemns this City And Colour album is its being lightweight without meaning to be.

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15/07/2011