Little Hell

City And Colour announces time of changes

Song-writer and performer Dallas Green, mostly famous for his solo project City And Colour, has been rightfully considered one of Canada’s most respected music envoys in the last years. His moving acoustic guitar play and thought-provoking lyrics are recognized and loved by fans of a great range of different genres. But as for Green’s own music, it is not that easy to say what it is exactly. The reason is every new studio release by City And Colour makes the question not clearer, but rather more difficult. And it might be even good that so far there have been only three albums released by the man, and we, accordingly, have to analyze only three different works, good and interesting in their own ways. What comes next and how we are supposed to classify City And Colour later is not clear either. Green’s album number three was released in summer 2011, called Little Hell and provided with somewhat primitive cover. The music, in its turn, grew more sophisticated as Green demonstrates here a considerable progress.

Not a solo effort, but rather a work by a band

City And Colour’s fresh product, like neither of the previous ones, looks like an offering from a rock music band. With acoustic guitar still in place, we have many more other instruments added, mostly synths and strings. This automatically makes the sound richer, and the new acoustic surrounding makes the voice sound different. At the same time, Green stays away from using one and the same structure and tools for each and every Little Hell track. For example, the album’s eponymous song is based on the electric guitar riff, Weightless hooks you with dynamic beats in the vein of indie-rock, and the concluding Hope For Now kicks off with acoustic and ends with electricity in full and mighty singing. However, Little Hell still has some stuff that preserves the stylistics of the earlier works. Silver And Gold, and Northern Wind have nothing but good voice and decent acoustic guitar, which makes them perfect songs for one-man performance. Nevertheless, it is clear that Green is committed to making City And Colour a one-musician ensemble and this is the reason why the new type material is so efficient, like Natural Disaster, for example. It is executed enthusiastically and provides some deep lyrics as well.

Little Hell paints City And Colour bright prospects

Dallas Green’s gradual departing from youth-inspired acoustic material should have been foreseen. His career is only beginning, and stopping now would be too early a move. The majority of the man’s supporters are likely to be glad watching City And Colour developing with his music growing more interesting and less predictable. After all, the blues-like theme in Fragile Bird is not only a top-class episode, but something few would expect Green to pull off shortly before now. Little Hell is a little bit too diversified – the musician wanted to have one CD exposing everything he can do. Therefore, it sometimes looks more like a collection than another studio album. In fact, it is not that bad in this case. Probably, it is even good because this is the first record City And Colour that displays the project’s great potential so fully and gives all fans a serious ground to believe in its following successfulness.