(Folk-Rock, Experimental, Soul) Bruce Peninsula - Open Flames - 2011, MP3, 320 kbps

"Bruce Peninsula’s Open Flames is beautifully controlled chaos.
About ten seconds into Open Flames, you’ll note that this won’t be a politely quiet album. Toronto’s Bruce Peninsula have made a name for themselves by being larger than life, both in their live shows as well as their membership. With a formidable choir that has called Taylor Kirk (Timber Timbre), Katie Stelmanis (Austra) and Casey Mecija (Ohbijou) members, Bruce Peninsula is a difficult group to contain and classify. And with Open Flames, the group stomps, claps and hollers with a controlled strength, like waves crashing against a cliff, or a hoard of buffalo, recalling animalistic force and wild beauty. It’s one thing to comment on a singular singer-songwriter’s control and creativity, and a whole other ball game to witness the unique vision that’s united this diverse, oft-morphing collective to stunning effect.
Open Flames is anthemic despite itself. Harking to the technicality of prog rock and improv jazz, many of the tracks in the ten-track album are based upon uncommon time signatures. Despite the inability to bob your head casually, the punctuated, thundering drum beats jolt listeners from casual inattention and demands your full attention. Opening track “As Long As I Live” combines these percussive elements with gospel-y backing vocals and the sandpaper growl of lead singer Neil Haverty. Instrumentally, the band dabbles in motivational stompers like “In Your Light,” transition from mournful to raucous in “Say Yeah” and sonically march off to war on “Cliffs & Coves.”
Equally commanding as the driving percussion are the diverse voices. Haverty’s grainy growl is complemented beautifully by Misha Bower’s soulful, almost R&B-like vocals, which in turn are supplemented by the immaculate Bruce Peninsula choir (which contains members of The Weather Station, Snowblink and more). The expansive, echo-y chorus is best demonstrated in “Or So I Dreamed” and the tail end of album closer “Chupacabra.” In title track “Open Flame,” two female vocals twist together and apart sinuously before Haverty’s, a definite vocal highlight in an album chockfull of them."