>>PREVIEW
THE HIGH DIALS
Thursday, December 1
Broken City
In 2003, Montreal’s The High Dials put out A New Devotion, a fine record full of catchy pop songs that made its way onto many a year-end "best of" list, not to mention winning over no less than Little Steven Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist and host of radio’s Underground Garage. The songs had a definite ’60s feel to them, with singer Trevor Anderson’s voice distinguishing them from similar bands. Less slavishly power-pop than some of their Rainbow Quartz labelmates, The High Dials were onto something.
War of the Wakening Phantoms cashes in on the promises made by A New Devotion. Although at 14 songs it’s a bit longer than most classic albums, there’s no filler, no obvious song to trim from the bunch. The record has a dreamy, otherworldly quality, giving it a timeless sound that is less obviously retro than the band’s debut, but seems to shift time and place as it plays.
"I wanted to make an escapist record," explains Anderson, "a record you can lose yourself in. The songs as a whole should hopefully feel like an alternate world. That's what I'm looking for every time we put a collection of songs together – a new world. I wanted this album to have a dream-like, fantasy feel to it. And the record definitely has a landscape to me. The world there has a long and stormy coastline. It's a place, absolutely.
"Maybe I feel a bit less bound to expectations. On this record I just wrote the songs I wanted to write, without caring if they were appropriate for the band. In the past there was a lot more consideration for what the band's sound was or should be. Our self-made rules have been going and it's better."
While bass player Rishi Dhir’s occasional sitar playing adds texture to the sound, bringing in friends like Sam Roberts on violin and Kingpins sax player Josh Fuhrman heightens the sound even more. Fuhrman’s sax solo at the end of "A River Haunting" is particularly noteworthy considering the relative dearth of saxophone in contemporary music outside of ska and the E Street Band. It’s a beautiful conclusion to the song and may well redeem the saxophone to those who connect it to Spandau Ballet and Kenny G.
"We always joke that in the ’80s, saxophone players were raking it in," Anderson says, "with sessions three times a day and rock star lifestyles. I'm not a huge fan of saxophones to be honest, outside of soul music, which I love. Josh, the guy who plays on ‘A River Haunting,’ is an old friend from the Montreal ska scene and he's a really talented guy. We knew he would do something really great if we let him loose at the end of the tune and he did. We were all grinning ear to ear when he played that part. It was the first take."
While War of the Wakening Phantoms may find The High Dials – rounded out by guitarist Robbie MacArthur, drummer Robb Surridge and keyboard player Eric Dougherty – taking the listener on a journey of sound, this isn’t a record you need a decoder ring to decipher. For anyone who has ever been love-struck or lovelorn, Anderson’s lyrics are sure to resonate.
"I think this album is coming to terms with love in the field of time," he admits."Love and time are in total opposition, like phantoms clashing. That's one of the main conflicts.
"Love is so beautiful it feels eternal, and time is the terrible thing that comes in to steal it away and leave you feeling worse for the loss. I guess time ultimately steals everything away. But I'm still naive enough to believe that time can be conquered. Despite my own experiences, I choose to remain a romantic. I have to. Anything else is surrender." |
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