Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND
I Feel You

From: Collider
Released: May 10

Having already endured the breakout success (Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World, aside from hit single Them Kids, was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets).

Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider. While the occasional detours into funk groove, bluesy stomp and new wavey pop prove he's still eager to test the waters musically, most of Collider plays to his strengths and delivers safe, radio-friendly fare. It's not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it's working as beautifully as it is on Without a Map, No Arrows and Streets of Heaven, three songs you'd be sick of hearing on the radio by now if Brother Down had actually broken through Stateside. I chose I Feel You (which really was the album's first single in Canada, a move which has me seriously questioning whether Roberts needs to stop picking his own singles or firing the person who's in charge of it, because any of the aforementioned three tracks would have been a better choice for a radio single) because it splits the difference between Roberts' safe, playful side and his restless, experimental side.

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