With lead single ‘Woman’, City and Colour (the main project by Alexisonfire guitarist and vocalist Dallas Green) looked set to reinvent his style. The nine minute opus twisted around prog-guitars, with Green’s echoed vocals adding to an enticing and expansive soundscape. Upon its release earlier in the year, it provided a breath of fresh air to his otherwise increasingly interchangeable Americana rock.
Come ‘If I Should Go Before You’, Green’s fifth full-length in ten years under the City and Colour moniker, ‘Woman’ finds itself as the opening track, ready to pull the listener into the new progressive sound. Yet at the end of the nine minutes, ‘Northern Blues’ instantly reverts back to the sound that dominated his previous two efforts, ‘The Hurry And The Harm’ and ‘Little Hell’.
There is some immediate progression. The electric guitars are pushed further into the forefront, while the alt-country elements emerge out of previous shadows to sit prominently alongside the Americana, pushing away from the standard singer-songwriter affair. Where Green and his newly added, fully fledged studio band pull things back, the emotion that underpinned the earlier work shines through. ‘Friends’, ‘Blood’ and the album’s title-track welcome the haunting atmosphere that Green has perfected in his stunning vocals.
However, the evolution of City and Colour has always been leading to this point. Green’s clear affinity to the full-band sound has consistently moved him away from his minimalist ‘Sometimes’ debut. The magic he found on that, and follow-up ‘Bring Me Your Love’, has proved difficult to replicate. Although ‘If I Should Go Before You’ stands above the previous two releases, it fails to match up to what Green has proven himself capable of (see last year’s You+Me release). Discounting the occasional gem, this is a standard City and Colour affair; a remark that would have sent chills down any fan’s spine a decade back.
BEN TIPPLE