Reviews

Cancel Winter

Lie Still Now

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Review Date: 2008-02-08

I am going to try and be a little pre-emptive here and address the fact that yes; I do recognize the irony involved with me reviewing a band with such a name on what was probably the warmest day in the past few months. Why is weather such an easy thing to complain about? Every day someone has got a gripe with it. It doesn’t matter what it’s like outside, someone always has a problem with it. Just get used to it dude, that’s how things happen.  

Digressions aside (for now), Lie Still Now is a real tough album to pin down. Most of the songs hit with an epic layering that comes very close to bands such as Velvet Teen or even Radiohead. They’ve certainly have a very Velvet Teen feel, but I don’t think I would go as far as to say that they ‘sound like’ VT. One of the things I have found that I like most about this album is how difficult I have found it to try to compartmentalize it into easy-to-review capsules. Lie Still Now can be as elusive to its listeners as cryptids are to fictional FBI agents on the FOX network (while the writing was still good for that show!). I can hear hints of other bands on this album – the Walkmen and Interpol come to mind fairly easily. But sometimes, and I honestly don’t know if this is due to all the flu medicine that I’m on at the moment, I can hear a little Great Big Sea in singer Nate Kreiswirth’s voice. 

The album surprisingly sports a lot of catchy vocal melodies for something that also has so much atmosphere. I find that it’s a very hard balance to maintain. I mean, look at the two ends of the spectrum, Radio pop is all catchiness, but there is no mood around it, there’s no emotion outside of the vocals usually (and sometimes not even that). Then on the other hand, the most ‘atmospheric’ bands are usually instrumental groups and even if not, the singing is very sparse and rhythmic. I mentioned Radiohead already, but they are one of those kinds of bands that have successfully merged the two to where it’s just about even. I think Cancel Winter is another one of those bands. 

It’s intriguing, it’s a mystery, but it tells you all you need to know about it to enjoy it. Isn’t that what girls look for in a guy?

With all that said, the album isn’t really breaking down any new barriers or anything. It’s a pleasurable listen, and it certainly lends itself to multiple spins, but even though it seems to have found a great melodic/atmospheric balance and borrows just enough from style without leaving any prints, it doesn’t blow my mind. I actually had to give some more listens just to see if I was missing something big about it, something that should have mind guts all over my walls, but no. Despite the lack of mind-blowing power, the posting of this review certainly doesn’t entail that I am even close to my final spin of Lie Still Now.

Score: 7

- Michael Bulko