Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckle – Havana Winter-EP Review
Crap! In reading what other people had to say about Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckle’s newest release, I discovered that I am one of the few people to really not like it. And actually, that’s a bit of a lie – it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s more that, to me anyway, it was just, well, meh. It’s not bad but I just kept feeling that there should be something more. And I can’t even say just what that “more” should be. The songs are well-written and produced – something which should be expected of a member of the Barenaked Ladies – the lyrics are ok, not too trite but not overly insightful and the musicianship good – again something you would expect from the member of a band who have sold millions of CD’s – but I just couldn’t help thinking that they fell flat.
When this happens, when I am at the other end of the musical spectrum from just about everyone else, I wonder what it is that they hear that I don’t. Coma, the opener, is a nice mellow song with a gorgeous melody and catchy chorus that sticks with you. I started listening to this back in September when I knew I would be reviewing it and I have to say that I still find myself singing the chorus from time to time but is that enough? Apparently not because it dawned on me that I hadn’t listened to this CD in weeks, probably not after the third or fourth time. Coma has it’s aspirations but even though the message is noble – it’s time for us all to wake up and see the world around us – it just doesn’t quite reach the level it aspires to and the jangly, distorted guitar at the end is so jarring and out of sync with the rest it made me want to scratch my ears off. I understand that the purpose was to punctuate the need for us to wake up and its point was to do just that but I found myself cringing whenever it reached that point, almost dreading it.
On The Runway, the second song, is a jazzy little number that has a bit of a Broken Social Scene vibe to it. But where BSS has a very dynamic presentation, this is more likely to put me to sleep, perhaps it’s Hearn’s vocals which is good overall but lacks depth and variation. I would have appreciated a more grounded and earthy vocal, something to keep these songs from becoming the too dreamy and floating away which is what happens on Reeling. This song seems to get lost despite the cold dissonance of the female background vocal (a guest appearance by Mary Margaret O’Hara), which at times sounds like an eerie version of a theremin or saw, trying to hold it down. Luna, which follows, keeps the low-key atmosphere of the album and sounds like Hearn was trying to write a Ron Sexsmith song. It fails miserably, at least for me. I think once again, Hearn is aspiring to something but isn’t quite sure what and so forces the song to be what he wants instead of just letting them direct the show. “If you were lost at sea, what kind of lighthouse would I be?” is an example of a lyric that sounds like it should say something but tagged onto the end of Luna it just sounds overly insightful and pretentious.
I wish I could like this CD, I really do, I just feel it could have been much better. There is a lot of talent here with guests such as O’Hara, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, John McDermott, and Chantal Kreviasuk, it’s just a shame that their collective talents have been squandered. These guests are accompanied by Thin Buckle’s Bob Scott (drums, percussion), Chris Gartner (bass, vocals & guitar),
Brian Macmillan (guitar & vocals), and Derek Orford (guitar, mandolin & vocals). If you are interested in this CD or any of the others that Hearn and band have released, you can buy them on iTunes, at Amazon, on his website, or at Zunior. For more information including tour dates you can go to Hearn’s website, facebook page, and MySpace.
Here are a couple of tunes for your perusal:
Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckle – Coma
Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckle – Huntsville.ca
