11.29.2007
Spins: The Weakerthans
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The Weakerthans
Reunion Tour
Label: Epitaph
If you like: The Decemberists, The Postal Service
Song to download: “Night Windows”
3 1/2 stars (out of four)
The Weakerthans are yet another splendid pop band from Canada, an area that is suddenly churning out great bands with viral intensity.
The Weakerthans have been here and there for a few years - it has been four years between albums - but the band’s vividly attractive music, flush with the unexpected, is the stuff of which great careers should be made. The songwriting of John K. Samson defies normal pop song structure; catchy hooks pop up in unexpected places, and the band’s grasp of musical mood and dynamics shows equal appreciation for the epic and the restrained.
Samson also has a serious gift for turning slice-of-life vignettes into cinematic short stories that, more often than not, are so intricately crafted as to leave the listener spellbound. The man has a magical way with words - he is smart, but he doesn’t flaunt it. If anything, he has fun with his wit and wisdoms, proving to be that rare literary songwriter more in love with life than a library. These lush, earthy songs of lost lovers, bus drivers, medical oddities and curling leave listeners enchanted, intrigued and pining for more.