CD Odyssey Disc 1614: Melissa McClelland

Greetings, Gentle Reader, and apologies for my prolonged absence. It has been one hell of a busy week. However today, encouraged by my lovely wife Sheila, I left work at a reasonable enough hour to write a music review before my mental pumpkin bursts.

If the end of this review is an unfinished sentence that trails away in ellipses you’ll know my pumpkin burst after all. Should that happen, please take comfort knowing that my last conscious act was to ensure the punctuation was evocative.

Disc 1614 is…Victoria Day

Artist: Melissa McClelland

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover?  Melissa’s Giant Head, in profile. I see her hair is a bit be-“fowled” however. Get it? Get it?

Man, I crack myself up.

How I Came To Know It: I don’t remember. It might have been through Luke Doucet, to their shared project (“Whitehorse”) or maybe some other order. I was so uncertain about the origin I checked the last entry (almost three years ago) and discovered…I couldn’t remember then either.

Whatever the case, I am certain this was my first Melissa McClelland solo album so that’s um…something.

Hey, life is full of uncertainties, but it is also full of music, which is really why we’re here, so let’s just move on.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Melissa McClelland albums and “Victoria Day” comes in right in the middle at #2. Since this is my last album by her, here’s a full accounting:

1. Thumbelina’s One Night Stand: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1360)
2. Victoria Day: 3 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Stranded in Suburbia: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 1348)

Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

What happens when a woman with the heart of a folk singer decides to don the mantle of a fifties crooner? Good things. “Victoria Day” is Melissa McClelland’s last solo album before taking up fulltime with hubby Luke Doucet as one half of the band “Whitehorse”. She goes out on top, with a record that is more stylistically limited than 2006’s “Thumbelina’s One Night Stand” but nearly its equal.

In retrospect, “limited” is an unfair comparison. It would be more accurate to say that “Victoria Day” is stylistically focused. The record still has elements of folk, pop, jazz and all the other odds and ends that make up McClelland’s approach to music, but she’s distilled it down into a modern-day love letter to old forties and fifties vocal performances.

What you end up with is a collection of songs that feel at home on a fifties USO show, or maybe a performance at a smoky lounge frequented by Frank Sinatra. There is a full and rich quality to McClelland’s vocals, that helps you understand the joy of singing in its purest form.

We get started with “A Girl Can Dream” and the one song co-written with Doucet. The title alone gives you a feeling of a bygone era, and McClelland perfectly embodies a timeless flirtatious quality, while still portraying a self-possessed woman of substance. It is both modern, and also a window into a more fully realized reality than we sometimes give the mid-twentieth century credit for.

“A Girl Can Dream” has a Sinatra-like swing that is common to many songs on the record. There is a lot more going on than just that in these songs, and they are grounded in the burgeoning indie music scene that has since created music that makes folk, country and pop functionally indistinguishable from one another.

Other standouts include “Glenrio” and “Victoria Day (May Flowers)”. The latter of these tracks has a playful horn section that refuses to limit itself to a flourish, instead creating a semi-rowdy but agreeable hubbub around the edges of the tune. Think the scattered guests still out on the lawn after the sun goes down at a summer house party.

While this is majority of what you can expect on the record, there is one strong exception. “Brake” is folksy, understated and devastating in its raw emotion. While it isn’t a fit for the record’s overall vibe, it is still the best song on it.

Part of this is the simple but sublime acoustic guitar work. The Youtube video version of this song is not the same and is filled with a lot of production and excess instrumentation, but the studio track showcases a light and insistent acoustic strum and McClelland’s amazing vocals and little else.

The lyrics of “Brake” also favourably reminded me of 17^th century Metaphysical Poetry, with its clever double use of “brake” and “break” and how in the context of the song they both apply to the narrator’s quiet, but restless heart. John Donne would approve.

Because of my aforementioned schedule, “Victoria Day” got a lot of repeat plays over the last week and while I think the record has a mix of great songs and those that are just OK, I never got tired of listening. McClelland has since gone on to make a lot of awesome records as Whitehorse, but this record is a final reminder she was just as good solo.

Best tracks: A Girl Can Dream, Glenrio, Victoria Day (May Flowers), Brake

CD Odyssey Disc 1360: Melissa McClelland

Fun fact: I reviewed another Melissa McClelland album just 12 reviews ago. It often seems in the random draw of what I listen to next that once the dice (I roll dice to choose) have alighted upon one artist they seem drawn to roll them again soon after.

Or maybe my stupid human brain just likes to see patterns where there are no patterns.

Disc 1360 is…. Thumbelina’s One Night Stand

Artist: Melissa McClelland

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover? It’s a thimble! I believe this is also an ancient hobo signal for a house where you could get your pants hemmed.

How I Came To Know It: I can’t remember. On previous Whitehorse reviews I’ve claimed I discovered the band first, and from there found the solo work of Doucet and McClelland. That can’t be right, though, because I knew Luke Doucet’s solo work from seeing him front Blue Rodeo. Frankly, I’m a little confused about the sequencing of the whole thing. Did I know McClelland first? Did I look her up after I saw her name in a Whitehorse record? I don’t know, and frankly my previous reviews of the various bands involved demonstrate I can’t trust my instincts on this one either. Let’s just say I got to know her music and Whitehorse all around the same time about five or six years ago. Or as I like to call it, “when in doubt, retreat to vaguer ground.”

How It Stacks Up:  I have three Melissa McClelland albums, and this is the best one. Gold!

Ratings: 4 stars

What a difference a couple of years make. Only last month I was reviewing Melissa McClelland’s previous album, 2004’s “Stranded in Suburbia” and bemoaning the lack of focus. Turns out I was bemoaning the wrong thing. “Thumbelina’s One Night Stand” has just as many music influences on display – folk, rock, pop, jazz/lounge – but it all comes together in a cohesive whole. It’s a thin line between lacking focus and having ‘range’ but McClelland lands squarely on the good side of that line here.

How that mystical line gets drawn isn’t an exact science, but I think it starts with ‘voice’., I don’t mean McClelland’s vocal prowess, although she is an exceptional singer; versatile enough to handle any of the previously mentioned musical approaches. However, it is her sense of self that feels fully realized on this record. Rather than trying different song styles on for size, here it feels like she just sinks naturally into them. She still tells stories full of character and narrative, but now there is a piece of her at the kernel of each tale, giving it depth and making it real

The record begins with a great character. On “Passenger 24” a morally suspect truck driver goes from town to town, high on cocaine, shamelessly and creepily hitting on girls on both sides of the age of majority. Pretty far from McClelland’s own experience, but she sinks right into this raccoon-shooting miscreant.

It’s McClelland’s song, but you may also know it from her first Whitehorse record with music and life partner Luke Doucet. That version exchanges piano for electric guitar but for all the extra wattage, it doesn’t make it any grimier. Their both good, but I’ll take McClelland’s solo version any day.

From that gritty bit of nasty, she switches to gears to a Portuguese factory worker (“Iroquois Street Factory”) where she juxtaposes a blue-collar factory worker with a lounge jazz style. It shouldn’t work, but again the inner truth McClelland brings to it (along with some great lyrics) holds everything together.

By song three, she’s shifted to contemporary folk music, again without any protest on the ears. Her voice smooth and a little mournful, as befits a song about loneliness and quiet despair. McClelland’s songwriting is natural and loaded with internal detail, her narrator seeing a world of decay all around, as she sings:

“Quietly the visitors escape

And I am left alone to recuperate

From a dire expedition

And a fiery rendition

Of a humble life

Brooding just beneath the varnished pine

The wicked smell of death and turpentine

Well I’d offer up a flower

But my intentions have grown sour

And my tears have dried”

Luke Doucet produces McClelland for the second straight time, here seems to have a much better handle on McClelland’s sound than on “Stranded in Suburbia”. Everything feels a bit more understated, letting her songwriting talent shine through. The instruments are nice and easy in the mix, with McClelland’s vocals the star of the show, as they should be.

The record is a who’s who of Canadian folk-rock icons. In addition to Doucet producing, he plays both his signature guitar and a slew of other instruments. Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, plus Justin Rutledge and Sarah McLachlan all stop in to provide backing vocals. None of them overshadow McClelland, although there is one awkward moment where Keelor throws in a refrain of “strange and beautiful are the stars tonight” on “Skyway Bridge”. I think he meant the line, which is pulled from his hit “Lost Together,” as an homage to McClelland’s song. Instead it comes off as self-conscious.

My only other gripe is that at 16 songs and 69 minutes, the album is both too long, and has too many tracks, including a double appearance of “You Know I Love You Baby” (the second being distinguished as the “Jeff Trott mix”). Both versions are good, but they are similar enough in sound and style that one would have been sufficient.

This is a minor quibble on a record that is so thoroughly engaging and emotionally resonant. So much so that even though I was finished listening to it on Friday, I refrained from reviewing it all weekend just so I could come back and give it another listen today.

Best tracks: Passenger 24, Solitary Life, A Price To Pay, You Know I Love You Baby, Come Home Suzie

CD Odyssey Disc 1348: Melissa McClelland

I moved offices this week and as a result I’ve added an extra 5-10 minutes of walking time to my commute. Weirdly, this makes me happy. I have more time for music listening.

This should also make you happy, dear reader, as it means new reviews will appear here with greater frequency. Unless you don’t really like the reviews, but in that case what the hell are you doing here in the first place?  

Disc 1348 is…Stranded in Suburbia

Artist: Melissa McClelland

Year of Release: 2004

What’s up with the Cover? Melissa McClelland sits in the middle of a field looking…now what’s the word for it? Oh, right: incredibly beautiful.

How I Came to Know It: I knew Melissa McClelland for a while, but this particular album proved hard to find. I eventually found a used copy of it at a local record store a few years ago.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Melissa McClelland albums. I used to have four, but McClelland’s self-titled 2001 release didn’t grab me, and I parted with it before I ever got to the reviewing process.

Of the three remaining, I must regrettably put “Stranded in Suburbia” in third place. It’s still a bronze medal. This means the best is yet to come!

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

Melissa McClelland’s music ranges through pop, rock and folk and every one of her albums is different than the last. This is generally refreshing, although on “Stranded in Suburbia” it also means that she sometimes goes in directions that feel a bit forced, as though McClelland is still finding her voice as an artist early in her career.

“Stranded in Suburbia” is first and foremost a pop record, and unapologetically so. McClelland has folk elements here and there, but these songs are written and produced from a very pop-centered place. Long time readers know I have no issue with pop music; I often bemoan that so much of what is best in pop music never charts. What causes the masses turn one song into a hit and not another is beyond me. I guess if I knew I’d be one of those Soulless Record Execs, sleeping fitfully and guiltily…in my giant mansion.

Many of the songs on “Stranded in Suburbia” feel like they are striving to be pop radio hits, but this makes many of them feel stretched and overproduced. On “White Lies” there are oddly placed synth ‘laser’ sounds at one point that add very little to the song and jarred me out of the tune. “Jaded” opts to start with a synthetic drumbeat which didn’t appeal. It feels most like the “single” (another clue: it appears again later on the album as a remix, this time with even more synthy sounds than before). Both versions reminded me of what I don’t like about radio pop. Lyrically it is strong (McClelland is a first-rate songwriter) but those lyrics are wrapped up in a lot of unnecessary to-do.

For all that, the record still has many bright spots. “Glimpse Into Hell” is a stripped down track featuring guitar and a string section, which showcases both McClelland’s amazing voice and her talent for storytelling. McClelland’s sing-song delivery is a clever juxtaposition to grim sequences like this:

“There’s a sickening smell to this room

Of whiskey stained breath and the cheapest perfume

There’s a girl in a bra

And sex in your pants

And she’s sucking a straw as she begs you to dance.”

“Picture Postcard” is a thoughtfully composed crime saga, again featuring McClelland’s talent for painting a scene in a few lines:

“In a San Fernando Valley pool hall

He caught the eye of some young broad

Turns out the girl is only seventeen and thinks criminals are cool.”

The album also features a gritty, sexy, reverb-laden version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Factory.” The song features McClelland’s amazing vocals peeling out and does what every good cover should do; take a classic song and make it your own.

And while I find a lot of the record’s pop-production distracting, there are even places where it works well, such as on the upbeat “Little Birds” which was so infectious it made me want to dance around the living room. All the stuff that bugged me on other tracks – the dance-club drums, extraneous bells – here come together to give the song some great energy. The song’s lyrics are pretty dark, which is one of the record’s best features; it’s ability to mix a manic pop vibe with songs with somber topics. When it works as it does on “Little Birds”, it’s great. I only wish it worked a bit more often.

Best tracks: Glimpse Into Hell, Factory, Picture Postcard, Little Birds