Julie Doiron – I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day
Julie Doiron’s album has been sitting in my room with the art of two sad children in Halloween attire. Not sure of the significance of the album title “I Can Wonder What You Did with Your Day” seems like a wonderful title. Either it’s showing off her daydreaming aspirations or suggesting something on her free time during the day. She is after all residing in Sackville, New Brunswick while taking care of her 3 children (from Wikipedia – let’s hope it’s accurate). What else is there to do but daydream?
This album is my first introduction to Julie Doiron, though to be fair it should’ve been Mount Eerie’s Lost Wisdom which Ghalib reviewed. So, bear with me on my lack of knowledge and the lack of comparison to older material. The album begins with Life of Dreams which ties into the albums theme I guess. If you told me Doiron was 20, I’d believe you. She comes off as optimistic and full of energy and reels you in at the strum of her guitar.
Doiron truly has a sound of her own (unrelated: do you think she resembles Feist in some photos?). Going through track by track, there’s really nothing I can nail down. She sounds like Cat Power on the beginning of “Blue”, or resembling the style of Kimya Dawson in the anti-folk sort of way. Doiron is strictly all over the place, constantly shifting from sound to sound without finding a real niche. Was that the intent? Probably, in a sense that gives off the charm, with her longest track at 4:29 in Spill Yer Lungs but with most tracks around just a quick 2 minutes. She really reminds me of Chad VanGaalen(the female version) as she’s a bit all over the place, doing a lot with very little and really able to get to the heart.
I really like Doiron in those short bursts, songs like It’s Nice To Come Home or When Brakes Get Wet are personal favorites. I’m not sure though, as much as I’m willing to praise Doiron herself for being incredibly talented the album is very flawed. It’s part of her charm to have very raw songs that almost seem uncomplete but instead of flat out loving this album, there’s a part of me that pleads for more and leaving me slightly unsatisfied.
Still, it’s a travesty if I don’t recognize the talents of Doiron. A very solid album.
Rating: 4.3 out of 5
Nice To Come Home by Julie Doiron
When Brakes Get Wet by Julie Doiron
Consolation Prize by Julie Doiron
She’s in Toronto on Thursday and here is her current tour dates:
25 Mar Pepper Jack Cafe Hamilton, Ontario
26 Mar The Horseshoe Toronto, Ontario
27 Mar The Grad Club Kingston, Ontario
28 Mar Il Matore Montreal, Quebec
2 Apr Starlight Waterloo, Ontario
3 Apr Chaucers London, Ontario
4 Apr The Ford Plant Brantford, Ontario
5 Apr The Montreal House Peterborough, Ontario
16 Apr Theatre Granada Sherbrooke, Quebec
17 Apr The Black Sheep Inn Wakefield, Quebec
18 Apr Studio Theatre Salle Andre-Mathieu Laval, Quebec
25 Apr Union Hall Brooklyn, New York
Tags: album