Review:

on 2011-07-17 CharlesMartel Said:

These days, when I have become much more picky about what I buy, and always listen to a half dozen of the tracks before I make such a decision, the chance of me being surprised by an album I buy is therefore quite rare. Yet, just occasionally, the casual listening I give the sample tracks allows a little gem to slip in under the radar. So it was with this album by the Weakerthans. Put aside what is, after all, a really crappy band name, "Left and Leaving" is a little gem. Yet identifying the reasons why is not as easy as you may think.

Musically, this is not a groundbreaking album. The musicians are competent without being virtuoso; the vocals are slightly whiny but not in an off-putting sort of way; the influences are clear - ranging from Tom Waits to the Replacements - but not overpowering enough for you to think you are dealing with a clone of either. Indeed, the tracks vary from up-tempo, almost powerpop numbers, such as "Aside", to slower, mournful ballads like "Without Mythologies". One minute this band is belting out a riff and rocking you: the next they have slowed down and are drawling their way across a subdued semi-acoustic swathe of loneliness and heartache.

If you think about it, few acts could get away with such a dichotomy on a single album. The Weakerthans not only manage it but do so in some style. After a few listens, it dawns on you why. These songs contain some of the most evocative and vivid lyrical imagery you will find anywhere on any album of modern songs. There are few other acts who manage to handle the lyrics with such consummate skill as these guys. Each song shimmers with perfectly constructed metaphors; drips with bathos; and purrs with irony. An overcast sky is referred to as "turned off TV grey", while fury is "rising faster than bus fares". Few other songwriters have used imagery like this and not come across as forced, strained or faintly ridiculous.

Nowhere is this more evident than on the album's finest track, "Pamphleteer". This track, slow and mournful, deals with the subject of the ending of a relationship and the subsequent feelings of loss and loneliness in a way which sounds as unique as the track is compelling. The track forces you to listen harder, to absorb the sentiments it expresses and challenges you not to turn away, no matter how painful listening becomes. The ability of the songs to draw you in to a place where you have been before, and don't want to go again is what makes these songs so damn good. At times, such as with the "Exiles Among You", a song about a young runaway living  just  on the streets is so morbidly fascinating that it makes you feel guilty about listening to it, yet morally uplifted because of the representation of the triumph of the human spirit.

Herein lies the true greatness of "Left and Leaving". This is an album which, on the face if it, is miserable, and yet is not the least bit of it. The album takes you on a journey, in an almost Dante-esque fashion, down to the depths so that you may be better able to appreciate the joys of life when they occur. The album is both a triumph of quality songwriting and a tribute to the power of words in the hands of a gifted practitioner of the art of expressive, creative writing. It deserves to be more widely appreciated than it is.
Rating: 9/10

on 2008-06-15 SolitaryMan Said:

I don't know why this album isn't clicking with me. The sound is picture-perfect, the band is fantastic and the songs are all very good. Maybe I need to be in the right mood for it. I was certainly expecting something along these lines, but as someone just discovering Weakerthans, I can't help but say I don't hear anything worth remembering. I think the vocalist is making it difficult, hah.
Rating: 6/10