reviewed by Michael
Every once in a while you’ll run into an album that is utterly depressing but re-listenable due to just how damn good the musicianship is. Canadian “supergroup” Deloro have made just such an album with their self-titled debut.
The band has some great names attached to it- Jennifer Castle (who is now releasing solo stuff as Castlemusic), Dave Clark and Paul Mortimer from One Hundred Dollars, Dallas Wehrle of the Constantines and visual artist Tony Romano. Woah.
Their music touches somewhere between rock, folk and country. This is mainly due to the fact that each musician almost has ownership of one or two particular songs. Castle takes vocal centre stage on “Travelling Man” and “Watertower,” for example, while Clark takes on “Joy Joy.”
The songs generally come off as fairly sombre, such as the opener “My Country.” What sounds like it could be a patriotic song is instead supported by a sad-sounding guitar riff and echoey vocals lamenting.
“Joy Joy” thankfully adds a bit of cheeriness to the otherwise sombre atmosphere before going back to “No Fun.” The latter is sung by Tony Romano, who shows that he can shatter all expectations with “Take Me As I Am” in which he’s basically screaming for the short entirety of the song.
Paul Mortimer does vocals on “Years” which is, while slow, a heartfelt song. It’s particularly captured in the lyric: “In your eyes, I have seen years coming around to me.”
Deloro manages to pull off what could be merely a haphazard collection of individual songs. While there are different musicians at work in different songs, the tracks tie together to make a cohesive whole.
Deloro can be found over at Idée Fixe Records where you can also stream a few tracks.
Top Tracks: “No Fun”; “Watertower”
Rating: Proud Hoot (Really Good)
