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Album Details

• Artist: By Divine Right
• Album: Sweet Confusion
• Label: Linus/Spinart
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-04-15

Don't be expecting any "Surgeon General" on Sweet Confusion because By Divine Right have indeed grown up. Don't get me wrong, All Hail Discordia is still one of my favorite Canadian albums EVAR but Jose and his crew are growing up and learning tricks along the way. There is some thickness in the Sweet Confusion sound but Jose can't leave his pop roots behind. The band tend to experiment a little more here on songs like the hypnotizing "Wheels Slow". They bring us down immediately after with a torch song called "The Pearl", one of the loveliest BDR songs yet. What about the instant pop, you may ask. Well, the album does open with "The Slap", a track that really could have come from Discordia, complete with some pretty highly mixed bass tracks. It is "I Can't Do This By Myself" where they start to get a little thicker and darker sounding like a Superdrag track. "All Over It" has some pretty crazy Hendrix-like guitars on it. They have a good time on "Soul 2000" as well; a track that moves from a lo(wer)-fi sound slowly and steadily to a thicker higher fidelity sound. It's a bit repetitive but clever just the same. More pop goodness is had on "Soft Machine" with some pretty large guitar sounds. If it wasn't so organic you might mistake it for a Beck song.

Oh yeah, and throw out the fact that THE Leslie Feist played in the band a few years back. How's that for impressive? Get on the By Divine Right wagon people. You need to hear this music.

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