IN REVIEW: Hey Rosetta! - "Second Sight"

There's a telling lyrical passage that stuck out to me upon listening to Newfoundland-based indie stalwarts Hey Rosetta's third full-length LP. During the uplifting, depression-battling anthem Cathedral Bells, singer Tim Baker exclaims, "the road is lit and I'm going home". It comes near the tail end of the album's most thrilling section of songs, during which the seven-piece (plus additional hands on deck for extra orchestration) take a formidable musical journey through several genres and moods. After exploring the arena-sized farthest reaches of Coldplay, the worldly rhythms of Vampire Weekend and the zealous, choral flourishes of Arcade Fire among others, it's the comfort of home that drives the group down the album's (pun intended, I suppose) home stretch.

Long before we get to that point, however, we're treated to some of the band's most interesting material to date. The album starts with current single Soft Offering (for the Oft Suffering) and runs through some massively appealing melodies, culminating in the earworm-inducing, supersized Dream. What follows is a slower, more introspective pair of tracks in What Arrows and Promise; they're not bad songs, but they do kill the momentum with their tempos and tendencies to drag on just a bit (they're a shade under twelve minutes combined).

Thankfully, the album's midsection finds Hey Rosetta! at their most adventurous, bombastic and lively; the groovy, methodical Kid Gloves, the fiery and percussive Neon Beyond, the nimble and enticing Kintsukuroi and the aforementioned Cathedral Bells run the gamut in seventeen minutes, laying bare all of this incredibly talented group's strengths. It also sets the table for even more thrills in the slow burning dirge turned hopeful ballad Alcaltraz, the soulful kitchen party atmosphere of Harriet (which contains the album's biggest payoff), and the hymnal, heartbreaking requiem Trish's Song.

As musically restless as Second Sight tends to be, it also feels like a natural progression for a band that's already shown plenty of willingness to experiment. If they continue to remind predominantly of the three other bands I've already mentioned previously, they're to be commended for only gleaning the positive elements of those bands' influences. It may sound like Coldplay, Vampire Weekend or Arcade Fire, but it's Coldplay without the inflated sense of importance, Vampire Weekend without the forced book smarts, and Arcade Fire without the heavy-handed pretensions. It's the earnestness and honesty that make Second Sight, and Hey Rosetta!, so easy to root for; this album is the sound of a band that, for all the national adulation they've received (two Polaris nominations and, if the quality of this record is any indication, counting), and for all the global-minded inspirations that creep into their core sound, they still haven't forgotten where they came from.

October 21, 2014 • Sonic/Warner

Highlights Soft Offering (for the Oft Suffering) • Cathedral Bells • Harriet

Year in Rock 2025

Alright, I've got some explaining to do. By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but: a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...

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 . W...

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...

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