Why I think you should buy the new Trews CD
"No Time For Later" is the third release by Canadian rock band The Trews, and it finds them moving in the same direction as the first two CDs but doing it in a slightly different way.
We still have the hook-laden, guitar-filled, heavy rock anthems, such as "Hold Me In Your Arms", "Burning Wheels", "Dark Highway", and "Be Love". We still have the signature vocal sound of Colin MacDonald up front and centre, we still have the classic-rock-inspired lead guitar riffs of John Angus MacDonald, and we still have the crunchy, solid bottom end of bassist Jack Syperek and drummer Sean Dalton. All the elements are there that have propelled this quartet to the top of the Canadian charts three CDs in a row.
The difference lies in two things: the production and the introduction of the acoustic guitar as the prominent stringed instrument.
This time the band went with Gus Van Go and Werner F as their production team, ostensibly to get that more modern sound these two are famous for, with previous production credits going to Priestess, the Stills, Caffeine, and others. They got that sound alright, and while I personally prefer the rounder, warmer tones on "Den Of Thieves", there is no denying that "No Time For Later" packs a pretty firm wallop all 'round, with crisper, more defined sounds from all the instruments and vocals. It is particularly evident in the ferocious "Gun Control", which has Colin raging against the Virginia Tech murders in a way that doesn't leave much of your face left afterwards in a very pleasant way.
It also shows in "Feel The Rain", "Man Of Two Minds" and "Will You Wash Away", all of which bring the acoustic guitar to prominence for the first time in the band's recorded career.
The band has always shown a certain amount of introspection in their music ("Travelling Kind" from "Den Of Thieves" and "Hope" from "House Of Ill Fame" spring immediately to mind here), but these three songs from "No Time For Later" show a maturing of lyrics and arrangement that are welcome breaks in the musical onslaught of the harder songs. Of particular note is "Man Of Two Minds", easily one of the prettiest and most honest songs released on a rock record in many years.
The other song to pay attention to is the latest single, "Paranoid Freak". This piano-driven funky tune about being a little too suspicious for one's own good chugs along incessantly, making it extremely difficult to stay still when listening to it, while at the same time lodging the chorus so firmly in your head that you WILL sing it for hours afterwards.
Although some of the songs leave me personally quite cold, there really isn't a "bad" tune on this CD; everything serves a particular purpose and everything hits its target bang-on. There's quite literally something for everyone on this album, and you won't go wrong buying it. You won't regret it either.
I've tried to put an automatically-playing version of "Paranoid Freak" here but LJ apparently won't let me, so if you're interested in hearing it you can go to their MySpace (www.myspace.com/thetrews) and it will play when you load the page.
We still have the hook-laden, guitar-filled, heavy rock anthems, such as "Hold Me In Your Arms", "Burning Wheels", "Dark Highway", and "Be Love". We still have the signature vocal sound of Colin MacDonald up front and centre, we still have the classic-rock-inspired lead guitar riffs of John Angus MacDonald, and we still have the crunchy, solid bottom end of bassist Jack Syperek and drummer Sean Dalton. All the elements are there that have propelled this quartet to the top of the Canadian charts three CDs in a row.
The difference lies in two things: the production and the introduction of the acoustic guitar as the prominent stringed instrument.
This time the band went with Gus Van Go and Werner F as their production team, ostensibly to get that more modern sound these two are famous for, with previous production credits going to Priestess, the Stills, Caffeine, and others. They got that sound alright, and while I personally prefer the rounder, warmer tones on "Den Of Thieves", there is no denying that "No Time For Later" packs a pretty firm wallop all 'round, with crisper, more defined sounds from all the instruments and vocals. It is particularly evident in the ferocious "Gun Control", which has Colin raging against the Virginia Tech murders in a way that doesn't leave much of your face left afterwards in a very pleasant way.
It also shows in "Feel The Rain", "Man Of Two Minds" and "Will You Wash Away", all of which bring the acoustic guitar to prominence for the first time in the band's recorded career.
The band has always shown a certain amount of introspection in their music ("Travelling Kind" from "Den Of Thieves" and "Hope" from "House Of Ill Fame" spring immediately to mind here), but these three songs from "No Time For Later" show a maturing of lyrics and arrangement that are welcome breaks in the musical onslaught of the harder songs. Of particular note is "Man Of Two Minds", easily one of the prettiest and most honest songs released on a rock record in many years.
The other song to pay attention to is the latest single, "Paranoid Freak". This piano-driven funky tune about being a little too suspicious for one's own good chugs along incessantly, making it extremely difficult to stay still when listening to it, while at the same time lodging the chorus so firmly in your head that you WILL sing it for hours afterwards.
Although some of the songs leave me personally quite cold, there really isn't a "bad" tune on this CD; everything serves a particular purpose and everything hits its target bang-on. There's quite literally something for everyone on this album, and you won't go wrong buying it. You won't regret it either.
I've tried to put an automatically-playing version of "Paranoid Freak" here but LJ apparently won't let me, so if you're interested in hearing it you can go to their MySpace (www.myspace.com/thetrews) and it will play when you load the page.