It’s interesting that Toronto-based guitarist and songwriter David Celia has chosen “Double Mind” as the song and central theme for his fourth album; it suggests a dichotomy in modern life that might even extend as far as schizophrenia but, for me, the album conjures up a totally different duality. In the old football (or soccer) cliché, this one’s a game of two halves, which splits almost exactly down the middle. If it was split over two sides of vinyl, I would very happily listen to side one and ignore side two completely. So what is it about this album that provokes such a mixed reaction?

The album opens with “Welcome to the Show”, a West Coast, country-rock tinged song which demonstrates Celia’s songwriting and features some lovely guitar work. It’s a scene-setter and it gives a pretty good idea of what’s coming on the first half of the album. Vocally, he has echoes of Jackson Browne or Neil Young and the songs are rooted firmly in singer-songwriter territory dealing with the struggles of modern life (“The Grind”), looking for a soul-mate (“Speak to Me”) and the schism caused by multi-tasking (“Double Mind”). “Thin Disguise” which deals with putting on a brave face after a break-up has hint of Springsteen’s “Kitty’s Back”, particularly the walking bass line, and the album’s first half is high-quality, inventive, introspective songwriting with musical performances to back it up. The only discordant tone is “Tongues”, which moves away from relatively serious territory into something more light-hearted and contains the clunky line ‘Don’t be shy with your region of nether’; it’s not the album’s finest lyrical moment.

The light-hearted (and lightweight) “Drunken Yoga” and “Go Naked” (which mashes up Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” with Beach Boys harmonies) sound out of place on a predominantly serious album, but not as much as “Princess Katie” which is David Celia’s “Frog Chorus”; it is possible to take the Beatles comparisons too far. The album’s closing track, a German version of the opener doesn’t really add much to the listening experience, either. It’s not all unbridled levity in the second half of the album; “Want You to be Happy” is a break-up song and the album’s longest song, “Smile You’re Alive” again has a seventies singer-songwriter feel ( a bit Neil Young, a bit Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” maybe) although the discordant piano coda feels a little out of place.

Listening to “Double Mind” as an entity is a frustrating experience as it bumps along from the sublime to, well, “Princess Katie”. It’s obvious that David Celia is absolutely fizzing with musical ideas and wants to get all of them out there but I’m not convinced that they all fit together happily here. You could easily cut out the more lightweight songs and transform this into a four-star album with nine or ten very strong songs.

“Double Mind” is out on August 21 on Seedling Music and David will be touring the UK in November.

 

OK, we’ll get the cliché out of the way first; apparently Sarah MacDougall’s name has to be prefaced by ‘Swedish-born’ in every review of her work. In this case, it helps to explain why there’s a Swedish-language song on the album (and a particularly beguiling one, at that), so I’m claiming that there’s a justification this time, but let’s just start with a bit of background. “Grand Canyon” is Sarah’s third album, following 2009’s “Across the Atlantic” and the award-winning 2011 album “The Greatest Ones Alive”. A quick look at the credits shows that the sound of the album is very different from her previous works; besides MJ Dandeneau (bass and double bass) and Shawn Killaly (drums and percussion), there’s a long list of guest singers, and players covering brass, keyboards, guitars as well as a string quartet.

The album’s first song opens with sparse, almost martial, drums and acoustic guitar and builds up with addition of bass, keyboards and multi-layered vocals to a climax followed by the reiteration of the first verse. “I Want to See the Light (Lost from our Eyes)” is the first exposition of a theme which recurs throughout the album; there’s a much simpler life which we could go back to if we chose to. “Sparrowhead” is a much more percussive affair, again looking back to simpler times, which builds to a climax with a mantra-like vocal and a trumpet riff; there are a lot of elements new to Sarah’s work, but it all fits together perfectly. “Malmö I Mitt Hjärta” (yep, it’s Swedish but the sleeve notes have a handy translation) is a bewitching piece, with echoes of Sigur Ros, carried along on minimalist percussion and a lovely string quartet arrangement, all supporting a powerful vocal performance; it’s utterly compelling. And the title track; well it’s the poppiest song on the album, with skittering percussion, keyboards, clean and dirty guitars and a melody that just grabs you and won’t let go; and it’s about going back to something more simple.

“The Story of Pippi and Lionheart” brings out another of the album’s themes, the powerlessness that we feel in dealing with real world with a series of fantasies identifying with superheroes from Pippi Longstocking to Robocop; it’s a relatively straightforward song, which is followed by the most complex song on the album, “Baby It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll”. We’re not talking about rock ‘n’ roll music so much as the lifestyle, and the song bears this out, starting with finger-picked guitar and strings, moving through another martial drum pattern until a snare backbeat finally appears in the third chorus to hint at r’n’r before dissolving into a string quartet to close the song. This song and the remaining two, “Devil’s Gap” and “2012” feel like a trilogy dealing with different aspects of the same failed relationship although “2012” brings the album to a positive close with massed vocals and brass.

“Grand Canyon” feels like a big musical step for Sarah MacDougall; the acoustic guitar is still there, but it’s joined by poppier keyboards, percussion and string quartet providing support for her emotive songs and distinctive voice. This is a little classic of an album packed with powerful lyrics, catchy hooks and evocative arrangements.

“Grand Canyon” is released in the UK on August 7 on Rabbit Heart Music Music (RHM02) and Sarah will be touring in November 2015.