The Line Atlantic (or TLA if you slur alot) hail from Edmonton, Alberta, where there's still snow on the ground as I write in front of a widescreen and a calendar that insists it's April and who's designer must have been on some kind of future tense medication! The thing is.. it's warm inside and TLA's CD is about to start spinning..
Let's press the Play button...
The subhuman condition opens up the album with it's exceptionally well written and produced mixture of contemporary folk and hauntingly alternative blend of ethereal lead and harmony vocals. It's an inventive opening for what promises to be an inventive album and it's also quite an engaging heads-up for I hear the sun is nice this time of year which takes the entire alternative rock genre and bends it back into the kind of shape we've been hungry for. Watch out for the superb musicianship that spreads it's presence up the walls and around the floorboards with everything from highly informed drum sticks to fret devouring bass strings! The vocals are truly exceptional and they emphasize the lyrics perfectly in a song that's well and truly a breath of fresh air for these 'ere parts!
Half-moon lake is another diamond of a song with some magnificent fem vocale treatment - the likes of which I haven't heard in ages. What's particularly striking here is the rather tight and fluid combination of rhythm pieces that provide the backdrop for some incredibly perceptive keyboard and guitar work that meanders from the subtle to the superb in the space of just a few minutes. The lead vocal deserves additional praise for superb delivery and expression that makes the track all the more engaging to the ears!
March 20th, 2006 begins with some smart rock bass and drum work before being accompanied by some truly magnificent guitar work. Again, the vocals are exceptionally inventive and innovative and at around the two minute mark... things get really serious on the arrangement and production front. I love having my faith in Canadian Indie restored... it happens quite a bit these days.. firstly with fellow Edmontonian Alexia Melnychuck's outstanding 'Flying Machine' and again with Toronto's 'Ensuing Silence' and the remarkably talented 'Basia Lyjak'. This time.. on the West Coast (or pretty close to it) the spotlight really does belong to TLA.. they're just too good at what they do best!
These dark commutes are killing me is yet another example of what happens when the producers and engineers are sharing the same tightrope as the guys in the band. Button badges for excellence go out to all and maybe some extra gold stars for the drums and bass connections. What a band... what an incredibly clever and creatively well endowed group of characters TLA (all six of them) really are!
Shaking hands, shaking heads like it's splendidly performed counterparts would be truly something to behold live! I think I'll organize some live reviews.. it could turn into quite am addictive habit I wouldn't want any kind of cure for! There are some very fine musical and mixing desk goings on in this song and I could sit here all day identifying them but the word of advice is to play this one loud(ish) and watch what happens when you get to the 2.55 - 3.25 mark... dead clever!
This is the new club is an electrifyingly engaging piece of work. It's the kind of thing that would do really well in the UK right now but then it's doing a little more than OK through these headphones right now! I love the XTC kinda delivery particularly with respect to the bass, drums, and vocals. There are little things going on here that specifically out-rank what's currently tearing up the Euro charts and there's also the imminent danger of the same thing happening at this side of the Atlantic... I'll say it again... WHAT A BAND... WHAT AN ALBUM!!!
Public transit thankfully doesn't remind me of Edmonton's ETS at commuter time but it does remind me that this is a city overflowing with an abundance of some of the most inventive art and music ever concentrated this far north of the dodgy border. Here's some evidence... there's a lovely almost fairground quality to the intro which quickly merges into some nice piano that sets quite an air of late night city ambience and atmospherics. With some excellent lyrics and vocal work that's reflective of some of the finest harmonies ever to grace a pair of studio monitors, the song is made all the more outstanding and I get the feeling the band and the studio were really quite delighted with the mixed-down results!
I am, I am has one of the best synchronized arrangements of any alternative rock tunes I've heard coming out of North America over the past few years! While the vocals do the trick for the cleverness in the lyrics, the drums and percussion are laughingly beyond mere praise. Then there's the kind of guitar work you'd expect to find in anyone's top ten best guitar bit videos... I am, I am, ladies and gentlemen really is TLA at their very very best and it's a real treat to be part of this album's promotion! Makes the job less of a task and the task more of an privilege!
The boondock solstice is the final track on this album when you wish it was only the last track on disc one of a fifty disc set! Here we have just over six minutes of sensual delight in the form of highly accomplished songwriting and production work that's likely going to be played over and over again! Talking of 'again' we're treated to the same kind of brilliance in the rhythm sections that we've come to know and love throughout this undertaking. What a very sensible idea it was indeed to get these guys together to produce what I consider to be one huge epitaph of an album for Edmonton, for Alberta... for the world! Keep an eye out for the guitar and percussion meanderings that occur around the 3.5 minute mark... some fine stuff here folks! Inevitably, a superb track and a truly great ending to a truly great album!
