Send "Kathleen Edwards " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Guardian |
 The mood on Edwards's fourth album is one of non-threatening melancholy and her medium is languid alt-country, all softened edges and warm, full arrangements, the latter the work of co-producer and rumoured beau, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. The songs are sound, if a bit dull, and the album ends with what seems like a PS addressed to cavilling journalists: "For the Record" is a forlornly defensive plaint. "Hang me up on your cross," comes the reproach. "For the record, I only wanted to sing songs." And since they're such pretty songs, sung with sweet simplicity, who are we to crucify her?...full text |
| Popmatters |
| Canadian alt-country chanteuse Kathleen Edwards is delivering a new album, her fourth, that might attract more notoriety for the music industry headlines that she’s recently chalked up more so than for the actual contents of that album, Voyageur. For those of you who might not be keeping score, Edwards split from her husband and long-time musical collaborator, Collin Cripps, a fairly well-respected (at least in his home country) Canadian music producer and musician, and has lately found herself in a romantic relationship and creative partnership with none other than Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, a move that will undoubtedly bring her much more cachet in America and beyond. Not only has Edwards been touring with Vernon, but he has co-produced Edwards’ latest album. So this is a pretty big deal – a new personal and artistic move for Edwards – and, in fact, if you start typing her name (or Cripps for that matter) into Google, the search engine automatically adds “divorce” to it in auto-type without any prompting. Marital strife and new horizons unfurl throughout Voyageur, though if you’re looking for a searing and personal album from Edwards, well, Voyageur isn’t quite it – though it does flirt and dance around with the subject matter. Voyageur marks some new territory for the artist in that the coyly self-deprecating nature of some of her songs, such as “One More Song the Radio Won’t Like” and her jab at fellow Ottawa musician and touring bandmate Jim Bryson, “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory”, has been dialed back a bit, in exchange for some artistic hand-wringing over her current state of affairs. Voyageur is a pretty serious and straightforward affair, full of seemingly autobiographical references (that somehow feel removed from the self) and the occasional flash of Biblical imagery....full text |
| Nodepression |
| For several years now, my standard response whenever I got into conversations about Kathleen Edwards was that I "liked her but didn't love her." To be honest I cribbed this from a friend but it reflected my view well enough. The voice has always been beautiful and the material has just enough twang in it to appeal to me but the three albums of material she'd released sounded inconsistent to my ears. Songs like Buffalo and In State were spare and beautiful but clashed with more radio friendly material like the inexplicably popular You Make the Dough, I Get the Glory that was, at best, average to my ear. Don't get me wrong; despite the fact that I "didn't love her" I've seen Kathleen live no less than four times. The last time was on a vacation to Toronto which included a drive to Ottawa to see her at the Black Sheep Inn. As a live performer she's never disappointed: a slightly potty mouthed highly entertaining force of nature on stage, she engages with the audience well and even those songs I haven't loved on record have been a good time when I've heard them live. It's just that the albums tended to stay in heavy rotation for a while and then fade into the background of my life. Hence the "like not love." Edwards' new album Voyageur may have changed all of that. It's her strongest work yet, showcasing a tweaked sound and material that's as good as anything she's ever released. Considering that each of her previous albums were better than their predecessor, that's no small feat. Edwards' material has always been solidly Canadian in its themes and that continues here with the album's opener Empty Threat. It's refrain "I'm movin' to America / it's an empty threat" drew laughs from the crowd at the Black Sheep Inn last year in tacit recognition that every successful Canadian artist faces the decision at some point. The song introduces that tweaked sound too. The twang is still a strong presence, but there's a bit more keyboard now. Edwards has always toed the Alt-Country line pretty closely, and it's nice to see her finding her own way. The new sound is good, and it's perhaps most evident on the albums's lead single Change the Sheets, which seems like it was released months ago. How much of this new sound can be credited to Bon Iver's Justin Vernon remains to be seen. Vernon filled the dual roll of producing the album and as Edwards' new beau, and only time will tell if the musical partnerships stays fruitful. With a marriage that's broken down since the release of Asking for Flowers it's easy enough to find clues that point to this album as an exercise in catharsis. House Full of Empty Rooms and Going to Hell seem to reflect on the confusion that can happen when the people in our lives change over time. Partnered with upbeat relationship friends songs like Sidecar, the album presents a full view of the feelings of loss, sadness, joy, discovery and repair that can accompany the end of one relationship and the eventual start of another. It's rather nice of Kathleen to invite us along on her cathartic journey, if that's how you want to view it. There's not a weak song in the bunch here. Even the very radio friendly Sidecar stands out, with strong lyrics a solid drumbeat and Edwards' appealingly slightly rough vocals at full volume....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| Summary: It is difficult to find flaws damning enough to consider this anything other than one of 2011’s premier releases in alternative rock. The Dear Hunter present to us their crowning achievement to date; enjoy it. Ambition can be the best thing or the worst thing to happen to an album. Too much of it without a clear premise can lead to disaster…however, with the perfect blend of novelty, execution, and talent, it can yield a timeless masterpiece. One doesn’t need to look beyond the likes of Radiohead or Pink Floyd to witness a first rate concept album that, despite its overabundance of pretension, succeeds on just about every level. Now our darling alt-rockers, The Dear Hunter, with their theatrical approach and penchant for storylines between albums, don’t strike us as a generation defining band – but they certainly are not as appalling as Sum 41 (Underclass Hero) or My Chemical Romance (Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys) either. The truth about their latest album, or technically I should call it an EP collection, is that it is right where you would expect it to be within that realm of comparison: somewhere in the middle. Fortunately though, that doesn’t mean that The Color Spectrum is mediocre. In fact, it is a hell of a lot closer to the aforementioned timeless albums than it is to anything disappointing. The Dear Hunter have created a grand musical opus that rarely disappoints, is consistently thrilling, and is extremely memorable. In fact, its primary (and perhaps only) failings occur within the execution of the “color spectrum” concept, which despite its originality, is never fully realized through the music. It isn’t like when Thrice created The Alchemy Index, and you could hear one song and know whether it was from the “Fire”, “Water”, “Earth”, or “Air” disk. To be fair though, The Dear Hunter have taken on a far more ambitious concept, releasing nine separate EPs reflecting each color on the spectrum. Not only is that a lot of music to write, but colors are a bit harder to represent through music than elements. It isn’t as simple as throwing a lot of reverb at the listeners when you want them to feel scorched and utilizing an array of echoing digital effects to cool them down. How one goes about representing a color is more subtle, and it takes a keen ear on both the artist’s and listener’s part to appreciate what the notes are trying to represent, what emotions they are trying to bring out, and ultimately, what color they are trying to make you feel. The ambiguity of the idea also leaves a lot open to interpretation; what blue means to me may mean something entirely different to you, and it could evoke completely different emotional responses. But in order to avoid a full neurological dissection of electric impulses in the human brain, let’s just say it’s like choosing animals for a class project and expecting to be able to encapsulate the topic’s essence in one presentation. It just isn’t going to happen. Here, it seems that The Dear Hunter may have taken on an idea that is slightly too broad for its own good – sure, they absolutely nail it occasionally, but they never really gather consistent conceptual momentum. For all of its catchiness, quality craftsmanship, and songwriting prowess, The Color Spectrum isn’t focused enough to achieve its ultimate goal. Despite that noticeable flaw, The Color Spectrum rolls on all cylinders from just about every other perspective. Musically it is massive, but the division of the music into EPs as well as its sheer listenability prevent The Color Spectrum from becoming overbearing at any point. Each “color” has at least one awe-inspiring moment, and more often than not, The Dear Hunter see every EP through from start to finish. While it may be true that some songs cause the work as a whole to drag a little bit (especially on “White” and “Blue”), there are about three triumphant moments for every dull one…and in most people’s books, a seventy-five percent “hit” rate is worthy of celebration and/or recognition. Some of the best tracks come along when The Dear Hunter are completely out of their element, such as the folksy, borderline-country ditty ‘The Canopy’, the sunny pop tune ‘She’s Always Singing’, and ‘Misplaced Devotion’ - a track that evokes memories of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. That doesn’t mean that the band never goes back to their bread and butter, though. “Violet” in particular sees The Dear Hunter return to their element, crafting overtly theatrical, heavily orchestrated songs with giant choruses and even bigger hooks. ‘Lillian’ and ‘Look Away’ may be the best evidence we have that The Dear Hunter haven’t lost their classic sound, and for devoted followers, that Act IV will continue along the highly anticipated path set by its predecessors....full text |
| Iamthetrend |
| Back when I interviewed Casey Crescenzo last year on their headlining tour he was mentioning he was working on an undertaking of songs all based on the colors of the rainbow, and using black and white as basically the book ends. Being a huge Dear Hunter fan I was immediately excited at the possibilities of what this could entail and also extremely amazed that The Dear Hunter was looking to release 9 EPs at once. Fast forward a year and The Color Spectrum has been released through Triple Crown Records, featuring 36 brand new songs. I must admit when Casey mentioned this undertaking I figured that the EPs would probably contain some filler considering the massiveness of the project, but boy was I wrong. Everything from the production to the songwriting is absolutely amazing. What I find to be The Color Spectrum’s greatest strength I also think is it’s greatest weakness and that is how much each color sounds completely different from the last. It is truly remarkable how Casey can change genres such as blues, rock, electronic, piano rock, grunge and more with perfect ease. It’s almost startling how easily Casey can transform The Dear Hunter to sound like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Phish, Ben Folds, and even Coldplay and even doing those bands sounds better than they can. With each color having only 4 songs and such different moods and style changes you would think that it would be difficult to follow along, but each color blends pretty seamlessly into each other. That being said inevitably like myself you most likely are most likely going to find certain colors that you really love and others that you could do with out (yellow, yes I’m looking at you). Overall The Color Spectrum is absolutely incredible from top to bottom it truly shows off how much of a musical genius and talent Casey Crescenzo is. From a listening standpoint it’s quite the undertaking just listening to a 36 song collection and I cant even imagine the musical undertaking that this took....full text |
Kathleen Edwards lyrics
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