Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3.5/5 Released: September 12, 2006 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
In 2005, Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor and the rest of Blue Rodeo released their tenth studio effort Are You Ready. Debatably their best work since Five Days in July, it once again set expectations high for one of Canadian music’s staple rock acts. Now in 2006, the bands members are taking some time to their selves as three of them release solo efforts. Musician extraordinaire Bob Egan released his fourth album Glorious Decline late this summer and now Jim Cuddy releases the follow up to his 1998 solo debut All in Time, The Light That Guides You Home.
On Light, Cuddy illustrates not so much a musical growth, but much more importantly, personal growth. While little of the music differs from what you’d expect, song pace and subject matter change frequently. On the duet ‘Married Again,’ Cuddy joins forces with Kathleen Edwards for the album’s most fun and upbeat number, while the next track quickly switches to the melancholy and melodious. ‘Pull Me Through’ is a mature, lyrically beautiful song, and leads the pack on the album. Collectively these two songs fully demonstrate both of the extremes in the album’s contrast as well as in Cuddy’s writing.
While much of The Lights That Guides You Home lends itself more to the sentimental, Cuddy still manages to come through with the same exciting fire we’ve come to expect from Blue Rodeo. But whether fast or slow, in the end it is Cuddy’s voice that is most memorable, a trait we have come to expect from him after twenty years of hearing his music.
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