It has sort of become a monthly ritual for me to skim and scan the Steel Bananas issue. It's kind of exciting to see what I've missed culturally in a city that I feel I know so well.
This bit you're about to read is in response to an article from the most recent Steel Bananas issue.
Sometimes Steel Bananas even gives me to opportunity to revisit old friends. I always refer to music from the past as old friends, I'm not certain why, but they give me comfort knowing that I know them as well as I did X number of years ago.
This month's found friend is Do Make Say Think's 'Winter Hymn, Country Hymn, Secret Hymn.' This album was huge for me about two years ago (I know, I'm even a little behind there!) An ex-boyfriend put me onto the tune "Chinatown" and that served as the gateway into bigger things, the likes of 'Winter Hymn...' This album is my favourite for it's continuity and fluidity with no lyrics to follow (as Patrick so rightly pointed out). Furthermore, each song can be digested easily alone as well, although I get excited in anticipation for the song that I know will appear next.
The album's final song "Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!" is especially impressive live. If you're lucky enough to see them at a small venue, the guitarist Justin Small may leap out into the crowd and play the intro bit.
I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic for a gig I saw two years ago in London, ON, where they stacked "Chinatown" and "A Tender History in Rust" together.
The extra thought through an album makes a good album great, or a great abum even greater. There's something absolutely alluring about Do Make Say Think's rain motif throughout the album, only noticable if fragmented by song, or really, really listened to. Similarly, I stumbled upon a similar instance in Death Cab for Cutie's 'Transatlanticism.' The opening track "The New Year," starts with the same sound that the album closer "A Lack of Colour" ends with.
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