CD Reviews

Hide Your Daughters The Teen Girl’s Guide to Social Success Independent / 2007 ♥♥♥♥	At a quick glance, the pencil-illustrated bears on the cover of this album might make it appear to be another (often) pretentious sounding indie record from the likes of those who flourish on the ad spaces of Exclaim! Magazine. Don’t get me wrong, I love that magazine, but I was greatly relieved to find that this was nothing of that sort. Hide Your Daughters’ (HYD) songs are frequently chaotic and sludgy in their form, which adds to the madness effect HYD seems to desire. Said chaos makes me think of the musicians as a drunken and muddier version of local math-rockers Ham at times. A touch of badass bar-rock here (and I’m not talking Three Days Grace here), a little of the Melvins there, and you’ve got a pretty odd recipe — but one that’s undeniably heavy and interesting. When I say that these guys are “chaotic,” I don’t mean to say they are aimless. Hardly. HYD seems geared to rock you out and bring some lowbrow weirdness and humour along for the ride; that’s what these guys do, by gar. My chest hurts just thinking about the potential power of the bass or the thunderous drums in tracks like “Retrial,” coursing through me at one of their live performances. Worth a listen, if you’re up for the risk. — William O’Donnell, staff
Johnossi Johnossi Independent / 2007 ♥♥♥♥	Johnossi, an indie acoustic-rock band from Sweden, exploded onto the music scene in the home country of its members, without having to go through years of playing in a lonely garage. “Things came easily for us,” the best-friend, male duo proclaimed on their website, signing a record deal after only three public performances. Johnossi’s first self-titled album includes a variety of tracks, starting with “Show Tonight,” in which John’s acoustic guitar and raw voice take centre stage. If this seemingly amateur sounding song turns you off at first, which is what I experienced, don’t worry and keep listening! Once I opened my mind to a few numbers, I became intrigued by their unique sound. Johnossi offers a variety of wild and captivating tunes, including “Man Must Dance,” which tells men (and hopefully women as well) that “it’s perfectly fine for you to dance around naked when you’re all by yourself.” Other tunes evoke sounds similar to Radiohead, Matt Good, and perhaps even some of the grungy rock bands of the ’90s. Although this group is only a two-man band, they offer a full sound, creative music, and an alternative to mainstream bands of the same genre. — Anna Murawski
Christine Fellows Nevertheless Six Shooter Records / 2007 ♥♥♥♥♥	This album exemplifies why I bristle at submitting year-end “Best Of” lists before the year has actually ended — had I submitted a list to meet a publication deadline from a few weeks back, it would not have even been considered. Nevertheless represents the culmination of Fellows’ song-writing to this point. With each successive album, she appears to be taking the best elements of prior works and incorporating them into her latest. On Nevertheless, she mines the quirky sounds of Paper Anniversary, the vocal honesty of The Last One Standing and returns to avian themes first explored on 2 Little Birds, while adding new sounds and ideas to the mix. The apotheosis of all of this is “The Parlour Rollers,” Fellows’ heart-rending story of pigeons on Valour Road. I first heard it performed at the Nuna festival earlier this year when it was simply Fellows’ voice and piano — the treatment on Nevertheless includes strings and percussion that augment the song without overwhelming it. The ukulele figures prominently on Nevertheless. In Fellows’ hands, the ukulele sounds out notes high and delicate, as if she has found the perfect complement to her voice with its own pitch and delicacy. I hope, for all our sakes, that Fellows continues onwards and upwards with each new release. — Michael Elves, volunteer stafftwin