{"id":18759,"date":"2020-05-12T05:30:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T09:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=18759"},"modified":"2020-05-12T16:08:52","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T20:08:52","slug":"album-review-strand-cant-trust-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/12\/album-review-strand-cant-trust-the-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Strand — Can’t Trust the Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Some of the most enduring rock has come out of Ireland. The Emerald Isle has given us Van Morrison, The Undertones, Thin Lizzy<\/a>\u2019s Phil Lynott, and even U2 (if you\u2019re so inclined). For a country with a population of less than five million \u2013 for comparison, that\u2019s slightly more people than live within the city limits of Los Angeles \u2013 its imprint upon music (and most all cultural pursuits) is impressive and well-earned.<\/p>\n

Niall Toner has been making music for some years now; his group Strand is the expression of his finely-tuned pop instincts. With a delightful voice, strong melodic ideas and carefully-constructed arrangements that suggest Crowded House or (to name a less-known entity) the Milk and Honey Band<\/a>, Strand makes music that sounds like it\u2019s bound for the top of the pops.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no small feat to work with subtle chord shadings while still rocking; Difford and Tilbrook do it with Squeeze, and Toner shows that he has a similar facility. Like a fine visual artist, he knows how to apply shadow and light; the breakdown that wraps \u201cBest Laid Plans\u201d is wholly different from the rest of the song, yet it fits perfectly.<\/p>\n

The breezy \u201cStole a Train\u201d has a kinetic bassline and a lovely Leslie-effected lead guitar break. But rather than call attention to themselves, those elements exist as tools for constructing memorable music. The songs are commendably varied, at once displaying Toner\u2019s breadth of musical vision and hanging together as a cohesive whole.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to pick a favorite from among the nine tunes on Can\u2019t Trust the Rain<\/i>; one delightful song ends, and another which follows seems to up the ante further. When he borrows a stylistic cue \u2013 the Pet Sounds<\/em> textures on \u201cNo Underground\u201d \u2013 he never* seems to be stealing, taking the easy road of engaging in pastiche. That same song features an entire verse of \u201cAahhh\u201d \u2013 something few artists can pull off credibly \u2013 but it works superbly.<\/p>\n

And when Strand crafts a gentle tune like \u201cGhosts,\u201d the group makes it plain that their mastery extends in myriad musical directions: dig that 12-string lead. The group channels Randy Newman on the melancholy \u201cCountry That You Came From.\u201d “Idiots” is lovely country rock not unlike Brinsley Schwarz or Unicorn<\/a>. And the scintillating eight-minutes-plus title track qualifies as progressive pop a la<\/em> 10cc.<\/p>\n

Maybe you can\u2019t trust the rain, but rest assured that you can count on quality music from Strand. Can’t Trust the Rain<\/em> is hereby short-listed for my favorite albums of 2020.<\/p>\n

* Hahaha…okay, that opening riff on “Roadkill” suggests Toner has heard Big Star<\/a>‘s “In the Street” more than a few times. But my original point stands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the most enduring rock has come out of Ireland. The Emerald Isle has given us Van Morrison, The Undertones, Thin Lizzy\u2019s Phil Lynott, and even U2 (if you\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[1259,4196],"class_list":["post-18759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-kool-kat-musik","tag-strand","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18759"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18842,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18759\/revisions\/18842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}