Two of the albums on this list, Dance Fever and Formentera aren’t surprises, but one, Blood Harmony is a very pleasant one. They aren’t in order, as I’d say whatever I chose out of these three would be purely based on what mood I was in.
Up first, we’re staying right here is Canada, with an old staple at this point.
METRIC – FORMENTERA
Up first should be no shock to anyone that knows me. It’s Forementera by Metric. I’ve been a fan of the band since I was fourteen and saw the “Poster of a Girl” video on Much Music. All their albums have hit (except one *cough). So the expectation was high going into the new album, but at the same time there was a high probability that I’d like it. I can’t say that Formentera has taken over Fantasies for me, but I could envision a future where it just might. Let’s see how it ages.
The album itself brings in the best of what Metric has brought to the (turn)table up until this point in history. It’s as if they went back to go forward. It’s both old(er) Metric and new.
Even though this was the first album I listed, I’m in fact writing it last. And am having trouble saying why I like it. It’s just damn good, and maybe just familiar, but in a good way. It doesn’t make me feel like Dance Fever does, or make me want to groove, and want to be in a band, like Blood Harmony. But I don’t knock it or like it any less. It’s on this list for a reason, and that reason isn’t because it’s automatic due to the fact they’ve been one of my favourite bands for so long. I don’t know maybe it is subconsciously. I can say I’m not going to figure it out rambling on anymore. I will end with this. Just listen to it, if you haven’t already. Maybe it doesn’t need to be any deeper than that.
Next up we’re taking a trip from up here in the great white North, across the pond to jolly old England, in the form of…
FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE – Dance Fever
When I heard the name of this album, I recoiled. “No, please, no.” I was referring, or really pleading for Florence and the Machine not to get caught in the Pop machine. Full disclosure dance music could not be farther from my thing. I don’t dance, and it’s not just because I can’t. A lot too, is down to the music as well. It’s just not my scene. But thankfully no dance music can be found in Dance Fever. Though it does make you want to move, just as the crowd did when the band came to town, and I’m sure all the other cities they stopped in. If “My Love” was what the general populous dance music was, I would maybe, no not maybe, but definitely be a fan.
There’s a theme to my choices. Not a conscious one, but one I said each time the respective albums came out. That it’s the best culminations of their careers to this point. Dance Fever brings the motion (albeit, more reserved) of Lungs and songs like “Spectrum” or “Ship to Wreck”. But the emotion of How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, and songs like “Never Let Me Go”. The former in this case being represented in songs like the aforementioned, “My Love”.
Like I said, the crowd never stopped moving and partying to these songs. Only taking a breathless breath as they played an acoustic version of what is my favourite song on the album, and quite possibly my favourite FATM song period, they saved the best for last with “Morning Elvis” a song that hit me the first time I listened to it, and hasn’t stopped since.
Back across the pond. Though this time we’re going South, to Nashville.
Larkin Poe – Blood Harmony
The sister duo of Megan and Rebecca Lovell took it up a notch with their latest offering Blood Harmony. I can’t say I was shocked that I liked the album, as I’ve been a casual fan of there’s for years now. But they completely blew my socks off with this one. They managed to bring the energy and soul that you usually find more on stage than on records when it comes to Bluesier bands. With searing guitars, Rebecca’s vocals keep up, bringing the heat and soul, matching both her guitar and Megan’s lapsteel riffs and solos, punch for punch.
The album as a whole is one I almost wish came out fifty years ago. It deserves recognition in our time, but is definitely one we’d still be talking about today if it came out in a different one. It’s an album that in a world of excess, and fleeting noise coming from all directions, that we are still lucky enough that there are bands out there today making classics, albeit, in the (relative) shadows, like Larkin Poe has done with this album, and the songs in it. Nothing proves this more than “Georgia Off My Mind”, a song when first released as a single, I listened to on repeat. You can almost feel yourself driving down a country highway in the 1970’s. Which isn’t too far off, as Rebecca Lovell wrote it about all the trips she’s made from Georgia to Nashville, over the years. It’s one perfect song that masterfully represents the amazing album that it’s a part of.
If this is the next step in for these two, skies the limit and there’s no stopping how big they could become.