I approached ordering
\nTurn<\/i> from Great Big Sea with trepidation, for lo, the Egbert
\nhousehold had laid under a curse this fall, with major
\ndisappointments from both Moxy Fruvous and Paula Cole adding gall
\nto our new music wine. I was afraid bad things came in threes, and
\nto get a
\nbad<\/i> album from Great Big Sea, one of my favorite bands,
\nwould have probably just been a
\nmajor<\/i> bummer.<\/p>\n
But the gods smiled upon me. So much so that the only question I
\nask, addressed to all the A&R men out there who read our page
\n(all one of you, because I suspect the rest can’t
\nread<\/i>) is this:
\n
\nWHY, OH WHY, DOES GREAT BIG SEA NOT HAVE AN AMERICAN RECORDING
\nCONTRACT?<\/i>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n
OK, I’m better.<\/p>\n
\nTurn<\/i> is the fourth Canadian release from Newfoundland
\nquartet Great Big Sea, and once again they prove that they may be
\nthe best Celtic\/folk\/party\/sea chanty synthesis band out there. For
\nthat matter, they may be the ONLY C\/f\/p\/sc s band out there, but
\nwho’s counting? Great Big Sea is a hell of a lot of fun to listen
\nto, a quartet of audacious lads who think nothing about backing up
\na traditional Celtic instrumental with a speed-folk cover of REM,
\nand
\nTurn<\/i> continues to prove just how good they are. In fact,
\nTurn<\/i> proves they’re
\nbetter<\/i> than I thought they were, adding substance to the
\nquirky eclecticness.<\/p>\n
The album kicks off with the tongue-in-cheek harmony pop of
\n“Consequence Free”. If it’s dancing you’re looking to do,
\nTurn<\/i> offers the boasting “Jack Hinks”, the
\nJimmy-Buffett-meets-St-John harmonies of “Margarita”, the
\ncheerfully drunken “I’m A Rover”, and the hopeful yet hilarious
\nlover of “Old Brown’s Daughter”. Then the thoughtful social
\ncommentary comes out as well, shades of
\nUp<\/i>‘s “Chemical Worker’s Song” — the soft yet celebratory
\n“Feel It Turn” and the haunting, driving “Demasduit Dream”. Capping
\nit all, there are the traditional melodies of “Trois Navires de
\nBle” and “Captain Wedderburn”. There isn’t a bad track on
\nTurn<\/i>, a rare compliment.<\/p>\n
The heartfelt and emotional “Boston And St John’s” is worth the
\nprice of the CD by itself, a deeply passionate ballad that took my
\nbreath away the first time I heard it. For fans of the band, this
\nis in many ways the counter to “Fast As I Can” from
\nRant And Roar<\/i>, a musical plea for a lover to be
\nremembered<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\nTurn<\/i> is simply one of the best CDs I’ve heard this year.
\nThere is no American release date, and no plans I can find to set
\none (remember, slap an American recording executive today), but the
\nCanadian import is available at CDNow, which is where I got mine.
\nSpend the money. Get it. You won’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":25128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6007],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36333","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-great-big-sea","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36333"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36333"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}