CD Odyssey Disc 467: Blue Rodeo

I meant to review this last night, but I’ve been starting work at six o’clock in the morning, which makes for a 4:30 a.m. reveille.  By later in the evening I am a bit knackered.

So tonight I managed (against the odds) to get out of work at a reasonable hour, which I didn’t expect.  I probably could’ve gone out and been seasonably social, but after I did some Christmas shopping and got back from a long workout, I decided I better review this record before my pumpkin bursts for another evening, and I miss my chance.

Disc 467 is…Lost Together

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 1992

What’s up with the Cover?  It’s damned hard to tell at first.  I believe it is a bunch of people (who may or may not be the band) looking over the edge of a high building into a parking lot.  Then add a bunch of swirls.  The whole thing is – dare I say it? – lost on me altogether.

How I Came To Know It:  While I knew the hits off the album, it was Sheila who introduced me to Blue Rodeo.  She is a big fan, and over the years she’s turned me into a big fan as well.  She had this album when I met her.

How It Stacks Up:  We have all of Blue Rodeo’s twelve studio albums.  Of these, “Lost Together” is somewhere in the middle.  I’d say 6^th or 7^th best depending on my mood.

Rating:  3 stars but close to 4

Why so angry, Greg Keelor?  That is what this album had me asking from time to time.

“Lost Together” is Blue Rodeo’s fourth album and it should be the band at the height of their talent, sandwiched as it is between the excellence of “Casino” (reviewed back at Disc 368) and the perfection of “Five Days in July” (sadly yet to be reviewed).

At this point Cuddy and Keelor have mastered their sound; a unique blend of rock, folk and alt-country.  If anything, “Lost Together” is a bit heavier on the rock side than many of their albums, and features some great guitar riffs front and centre in the mix.  “Where Are You Now?” practically rocks out like they’re playing the Boston Garden, and “Flying” sounds like R.E.M. in their heavy reverb phase.  These aren’t my two favourite songs, but I appreciated the edge they give to the record as a complete listening experience.

What I didn’t appreciate was Greg Keelor climbing Anger Mountain.  On earlier albums like “Diamond Mine” Keelor’s rage at injustice has a thread of hope woven through it, and on later albums, it mellows a bit with age.  With “Lost Together” it just comes off as deeply frustrated.  I’m as big a fan of protest music as the next guy (actually, probably more than the next guy) but songs like “Fools Like You” and “Willin’ Fool” while musically interesting are just too literal and cranky to reach me on an emotional level.

I will give Keelor full marks for the title track, though, which is a Blue Rodeo classic to this day.  As a song “Lost Together” has everything.  Starting with a gentle folk guitar (with organ tucked in behind for some extra resonance) and then the drums, slowly kicking into gear as Keelor’s unmistakable warble reminds you that this guy knows how to sing about the good feelings as well.  By the time the brilliant Bob Wiseman kicks into his short organ solo (one of the few men that can make an organ solo cool), the song has reached an emotional crescendo, only to slip to back to earth, carried gently down by the able placement of a string section.  Then Keelor takes us home with a surprising powerful vocal finish.  This song is like a mini-symphony and like Keelor himself, strange and beautiful.

Yet it isn’t my favourite on the album.  As is often the case, I gravitate more to Cuddy’s sound, his voice big and high and full of yearning for high ideals that are always just out of our reach, but keep us reaching.  On “Lost Together” he’s got a few good ones.  The first is “Rain Down on Me.” Following immediately after Keelor opens the album with an angry “Fools Like You,” “Rain Down on Me” surrenders to its powerful emotions, but doesn’t presume to know where they should take you.  As Cuddy sings:

“I used to think I knew

What I was fighting for

I don’t think that anymore.”

It is a powerful reminder that it is better to make love than war, even if you’re not sure you’re doing it right.  Also, like many of the tracks, it has a killer guitar lick which I like to think is Keelor pitching in to make a good song better (he is the more rock-style player of the two leads; Cuddy having the more laid back alt-country style).

“Already Gone” and “Last to Know” are Cuddy doing what he does best; describing relationships on the downward slide.  He is the master of capturing in both words and music when relationships just slip through our fingers despite our best intentions.  In “Last to Know” the singer knows his girlfriend is going to let him go, and is just waiting anxiously for it to happen, like a prisoner who doesn’t know the date for his own execution:

“Sitting there across the room

Your smile looks like a threat

I’m living underneath the heel

Of what you might do next.”

He’s been doing these types of songs for twenty-five years now, and you’d think I’d get tired of him dragging me into those same old mournful moments but nope – I still love it.

Fortunately, “Last to Know” is followed by a sweet little Greg Keelor song, “Is it You,” spent of rage, he manages to blend his love of the awkward with a heartfelt honesty:

“There’s a drunk on the sidewalk

Trying to look unconcerned

And the dead eyed motel blondes

Wait in line for their turn

Is it you

Who laughs

When all the other dogs snarl?

Is it you

Just because you listened for a while?”

OK, sure this could just as easily be a cheap moment with groupies after a show, but even if it is you can’t fool me, Greg Keelor.  You got love in your heart, my friend, and just as much as Jim.

This is a good record, with a lot of musical influences working the tension that exists between them very effectively.  I couldn’t quite go 4 stars, but I was sorely tempted.

Best tracks:  Rain Down on Me, Already Gone, Lost Together, Last to Know, Is It You