Send "Woodpigeon " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Musicomh |
 You know those hugely irritating TV adverts? OK, I'd better narrow it down a bit. The adverts I refer to particularly are the ones promising you a free DVD or kit - the first in what on the face of it looks like a collectable series. The trouble is, the first one might be free - but if you want to make an outlay on the whole lot, you're looking at a red-faced call to the bank manager and a wait of six months. That's where the title of the new album from Mark Hamilton's Woodpigeon comes from, though in this case it's fair to assume he must be referring to something infinitely more desirable and affordable. Otherwise Treasury Library Canada would be winging its way back to sender, post haste. The term 'new' album is also a little misleading. New to us, maybe, but TLC (a coincidence?) has been around for a while online and off stage. It does however mark Hamilton's continued growth as a songwriter since returning to Calgary from Scotland for good, and he seems to have been creatively inspired.....full text |
| Guardian |
| While the British woodpigeon is a common and cumbersome bird, the eight-piece Canadian collective named after it is a more rarified creature. Led by Mark Hamilton, a singer-songwriter who recently came back to Calgary after living in Scotland, his group's second album is a 14-track tribute to the pleasures of home. Snow swirls and summer glows, while guitars, violins and banjos weave golden figures of sound, and Hamilton's vocals recall the tender touches of Elliott Smith or Sufjan Stevens. Some may shy at his slushier lyrics about girls in clocktowers and lovers wanting to fly into each other's arms, but there is enough strength behind these sentiments, and enough muscle in the band's heady harmonies, to make this an inspiring meditation on exile and return....full text |
| Popmatters |
| When you hear the right song from Canada’s Woodpigeon, it is hard to believe they haven’t garnered more attention sooner. Their sophomore album, Treasury Library Canada, was originally self-released and only available on tour or from the band’s website. But after a while the album got enough attention, including ending up on some high-profile best-of lists in 2008, and the Boompa record company has stepped up and reissued the album for a larger audience. The first half of the record makes its case as a fine pop record. The band’s sound is lush and ornate, but grounded in folk sounds. “Knock Knock” is achingly broken by Mark Hamilton’s lilting vocals, but it’s driven by a steady, thundering drum, and distant worming guitar riff that pleads over his acoustic plucking. “Piano Pieces for Adult Beginners” starts with, yes, a single piano, but not only proves itself sweetly catchy, but swells with layers of organ and synth, and another basic, but perfectly bouncy drum track. “I Live a Lot of Places” serves as a sort of statement of purpose for the rest of record, pinpointing a lost and searching feeling that weaves throughout these songs, a placelessness that manifests itself as pained longing. Violins swirl and tumble to open the track but rescind into the background and give way to the stripped-down chug of Americana. Voices come in during choruses to hold up Hamilton’s voice and delivering fragile but undeniable melodies....full text |
Woodpigeon lyrics
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