Cowboy Junkies – At the End of Paths Taken
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Cowboy Junkies – At the End of Paths Taken
Release date: Out Now
Format: CD Album
Genre: Alternative Country/ Folk
Our rating: 2/5
The Cowboy Junkies are like a diluted country western band that has been infected with a few shots of Lamb. In terms of genre it lies in neither category exclusively, but draws on excerpts from both. This creates a kind of alternating sequence of indie style country music that is sequentially cut with darker, muted songs that add a few extra layers to the overall album.
According to Michael Timmins, the chief songwriter for the band, the album was written with the notion of families in mind. Being the father of three children of his own, whilst remaining close to his parents coupled with the fact that the band is comprised of mostly family members, (three parts Timmins, one part Anton,) this was always going to be a difficult idea to avoid for long. As such, the album has a very soft, sentimental touch to it. Such sentimentality is most apparent on the track, ‘Mountain’, in which the Timmin’s siblings’ father reads from a book he recently completed about his life, while his daughter, lead singer Margo, sings faintly through his monologue. There is a touching simplicity to this act that makes it a charming and interesting track.
Aside from the homely concept of the album, the song ‘My Little Basquiat’, is the standout track musically. While it still holds true to the family theme, the song is a soft yet slightly sinister trip hop piece, which is a haunting Portishead-a-like track that is ostensibly about the potential outcome of the growing up of two young children and the predicaments in which they may find themselves in the years to come. All of the songwriting in the album appears to be fairly simplistic, drawn from casual observations of the world around them without too many oblique references. This can either be seen as liberating or limiting depending on your mood. In some senses this seems refreshing, but in others it can seem naïve, but the line is a fine one; in some tracks the simplicity works well and helps to lure you into the music, while in others it can sound like a narrative from somebody’s internal monologue, commenting on the sights and sounds around them making these tracks sound a little tired and well… a little dull.
This isn’t a bad album, but I can’t see it standing up to repeated listens. The soft naivety of the album makes it more akin to wallpaper music that may be inoffensively played at any given dinner party. The Lamb/ Portishead influenced aspects go some way to pick this album up, but the songs don’t build as powerfully as these mentioned groups do, and as such don’t hold your interest for long.
Review by Paul Walters
www.cowboyjunkies.com
www.myspace.com/cowboyjunkies
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