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Blue Rodeo- The Days In Between
Review It's hard to believe that this veteran Toronto outfit is releasing its eighth studio album on Tuesday. But that's part of the pleasure of listening to Blue Rodeo's latest effort, a mostly striking 12-song collection that finds the band with a renewed and revitalized sound. -- Toronto Sun On first and second listen, you might think that Blue Rodeo is merely coasting on The Days In Between, their eighth studio album (in stores Tuesday). They don't indulge in any extended jams, and the spacey, psychedelic numbers that cropped up on their last three records are conspicuously absent. -- Calgary Sun The old road-ready Volkswagen Beetle on the CD cover, the old car shots inside ... Blue Rodeo look like they're set to cruise along. Musically? Well, they're cruising along there, too. -- Ottawa Sun From the Artist Covering all musical bases, from the band's long-standing staple of roots rock rave-ups, the hard-bopping title track, the laid-back country ballads ("Sad Nights"), to joyful, enervated stabs at '60s-style soul ("Begging You to Let Me In"), electric folk ("Rage"), and Beatlesque pop ("Somebody Waits"), The Days in Between is Blue Rodeo's most concise and dynamic disc in many a year. Guitarist and vocalist Jim Cuddy, for one, couldn't agree more. "It's a very audience-friendly record," he notes. "It's not a U-turn for us musically; it was made to be played." In other words, it's a solid launching pad for bluerodeo.com's maiden voyage, but hardly the future standard for a newly untethered band renown for its often-wild musical experimentation. "If anything," says Cuddy, "our autonomy will probably be more relevant to the next record." About the Artist If the career of a band is looked upon as a journey, then Blue Rodeo has arrived somewhere truly special with the release of their ninth album The Days in Between. "We didn't want anything to seem tossed off with this album. We'd done that before - and it's nice to know, as a band, that you're able to do that - but we realized we wanted something different this time," acknowledges front man Jim Cuddy. Blue Rodeo is one of those bands that is particular about where and how an album is recorded, with atmospheres and personalities always woven into the end result. The Days In Between, is quite simply the group's most finely textured work yet. "We worked harder on this album than any in a long time," said Cuddy. "We really wanted to make a record that was a bit of statement for us." There is an undeniable writing chemistry between Jim Cuddy and co- frontman Greg Keelor, but it's also one that becomes alchemic and strained often, like any creative coupling that cares deeply about a singular end result. The Days In Between showcases their talents with an astounding depth and beauty seen in brilliant flashes on previous releases. The Days In Between was recorded at the fabled Kingsway Studio, a vast, ancient mansion that graces a hard part of New Orleans. It was producer Daniel Lanois' home studio before he went south to Teatro in Oxnard, Cal., and Lanois still owns it. Kingsway is a special place, to be sure. Emmylou Harris' haunting, gorgeous Wrecking Ball album was built there, as was much of U2's more prominent work. Peter Gabriel's best solo work was recorded within those walls, as was Luscious Jackson's terrific Fever In Fever Out. Neil Young is also very familiar with the sprawling, rustic haunt. "It's an amazing place," says Cuddy. "There's nothing but records made in that place. No soundtracks, no commercials, it's just a pure music place. The atmosphere you hear on Emmy's album is that house in New Orleans." For the album's production work, the band was very fortunate to have lined up producer and recording engineer Trina Shoemaker. Shoemaker is one of a stable of engineers that benefited from working with Lanois. Blue Rodeo, it turns out, benefited from impeccable timing with Shoemaker. They had scheduled their first meeting with Shoemaker for a Tuesday. On the pr