BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition June 2019

MUSiC ALBUM REVIEWS
Interview
JESSE DEFLORIO
G N’ R BASSIST SEARCHES FOR
HUMANITY IN AMERICA
DUFF MCKAGAN
Tenderness
UNIVERSAL MUSIC
On the road with Guns N’ Roses
during their Not In This Lifetime
reunion tour, bassist Duff McKagan
felt like he was driving through a
vast landscape of disillusion and
injustice. Donald Trump had just
been elected as the President of
the United States and McKagan
believed he was watching the “land
of the free” become a vista of ruin
and fear.
This is the inspiration behind
McKagan’s acoustically driven solo
release, Tenderness. The title track
suggests the social and cultural
divide being marketed to us is leaning
on humankind’s natural curiosity
for catastrophe. McKagan says we
just need a little tenderness to see
through it and hopes the album can
mend the turmoil caused by this
media-enhanced political divide.
“Before we started this Guns N’
Roses tour something happened
in America where three cable
news networks started acting like
soap operas,” he says. “Everybody
would pick one and watch. People
stopped thinking on their own; I
was sucked into it as well.”
McKagan compares America
to an “obsessed TV show” fuelled
by a commercialized political tugof-war.
“There was no kind of journalistic
responsibility going on, it’s just
pure commercialism. I wrote for the
Seattle Weekly for five years and
there is this journalistic integrity
you try not to harm. I think that
went out the fucking window.”
A self-described student of
history, McKagan claims these distraught
moments in history happen
in cycles and the storm will pass.
He hopes Tenderness can not only
have a meditative effect on listeners,
but also bring them together.
“When we play shows, it’s a celebration
of our music,” he says. “Nobody
asks who you are voting for; it
doesn’t matter. Everybody is there
to have a good time. It’s a really
uplifting thing. I would start talking
to people, and this ‘divide’ the news
is talking about just wasn’t there.
When there’s a tragedy like a hurricane
or 9/11, it doesn’t matter who
you voted for; everybody has each
other’s backs. That’s when you see
the true identity of this country:
people coming together.”
Johnny Papan
JIM CUDDY
Countrywide Soul
Warner Music Canada
Kicking rocks and turning over fertile
ground, Blue Rodeo frontman
Jim Cuddy returned to his family’s
farm in Southern Ontario to get in
touch with his roots and record his
latest album.
The rustic rural setting provided
a respite from his hectic touring
schedule and the ideal environment
for capturing the authentic
wire-and-wood sound he sought.
Joined in his makeshift studio by
members of The Jim Cuddy Band,
the multi-talented singer/guitarist/
producer began reimaging songs
from his back catalogue through a
stripped-down, yet modern, country
music filter.
Unearthing tracks he felt had
been previously underdeveloped,
Cuddy and company pour liberal
doses of draft beer and wheat
dust over Blue Rodeo numbers like
“Clearer View” and “Draggin’ On.”
Tributes to George Jones and
Glen Campbell rip a page from the
past and lend a high and lonesome
mood with covers of “Almost
Persuaded” and the star-spangled
“Rhinestone Cowboy.” Pretty
western ditties two-step and sway
in time as Cuddy patches up his
sonic scrapbook with a fresh pair
of bootcut tunes, “Glorious Day”
and “Back Here Again.”
It’s the perfect parting glance for
a nostalgic hayride that sets fire to
the barn before riding off into the
sunset. “Shane, come back!”
Best Track: Glorious Day
Christine Leonard
TIM HEIDECKER
What The
Brokenhearted Do...
Jagjaguwar
One of the most satisfying aspects
of comedian — and sometimes
folk singer — Tim Heidecker’s
anti-comedy is figuring out when
to laugh. His punchlines run deep;
it’s often easy to be unsure if a
joke has even been told, as with his
latest indie folk offering, What The
Brokenhearted Do…
The album chronicles the
emotional downfall of a “faux-divorce”
that Heidecker conjured as
a response to internet trolls who
fabricated rumours of his wife
leaving him.
While the pain in the content
might be fictional, the album boasts
a lot of feels that hit just as hard as
any true tale of heartbreak.
Jonathan Rado of Foxygen’s
production of this tragicomic pop
record is solid and Heidecker’s
straight-faced four-on-the-floor
musicianship makes the album
genuine and surprisingly earwormy.
Song titles such as “I’m Not
Good Enough,” “Funeral Shoes,”
and “Life’s Too Long” set the tone
for the lyrics, a self-deprecating
barrage of a man’s lowest lows.
Some of the best music has
emerged from the depths of sorrow
and Heidecker works this in his
favour. With his cringeworthy level
of sincerity and his varied output
as both a comedian and a genuine
songwriter, it’s not clear who is having
the last laugh here, but we’re
still listening.
Best Track: When I Get Up
Austin Taylor
CATE LE BON
Reward
Mexican Summer
On Reward, avant-guitarist Cate Le
Bon’s fifth full-length release, the
clanging and improvisational collaborators
of 2016’s Crab Day are
nowhere to be found, leaving Le
Bon in the basement on her own,
mixing up sideways concoctions
like a scientist chasing an epiphany.
Reward was written during a
year alone in England’s Lake District,
where she contrasted nights
on the piano with mornings in the
garage, applying beginner skills to
carpentry.
Lyrically, Reward explores the
pursuit of rootedness and foundation,
examining its elusiveness
through a lover and the agency
to choose what comprises one’s
space. It pairs well with the image
of Le Bon over hammer and nail,
building out the items of a home.
While recognizably Le Bon,
with regal, Nico-like vocals on
“Here It Comes Again” and wonky
instrumental offshoots on “Mother’s
Mother’s Magazines,” Reward is
softer at the edges than the Le Bon
of past albums Mug Museum and
Crab Day.
“The Light” and “Home To You”
glimmer with the friendliness of
commercial approval, while “Sad
Nudes” and “You Don’t Love Me” lull
the senses with the sweet cool-off
of horns and piano.
Cozy and strange, let’s hope Le
Bon settles into this nook for a little
while longer.
Best Track: Daylight Matters
Sarah Bauer
34 BEATROUTE JUNE 2019