REVIEW: ALDEN PENNER – CANADA IN SPACE EP

4/10

ALDEN PENNER streams 'Canada in Space' EP in full! - listen here

Former Unicorn’s member Alden Penner released his debut EP  Canada in Space on 29th June. It bears little resemblance to the former’s efforts but is it any good? Well, honestly? Sorry Alden, but I just don’t like it…

As with anything, it has good and bad points, but of all 5 tracks on the EP, there wasn’t one I could love from start to finish. The best part of the EP as a whole, was the second half of Breathe to Burn which after 3.5 minutes of the 7:40 long track, ceased to be overly arty and brought something a little dirty and punky to the frame, with a catchy riff, bass hook and chorus it was actually quite good, unfortunately that is the high point of Canada in Space.

For the remainder, the tracks seem to be arts for arts sake, often at odds with themselves and to my ear, barely keeping time with themselves either. Lyrically, it’s very cliched and perhaps more suited to the talents of his comic counterpart and co-performer Michael Cera’s talents, that is if it didn’t take itself to seriously.

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Finishing on an epic 9 minute battle of wills with Meditate, opening like a Hendrix track with sitar effect on the guitar I thought I might finally enjoy a little psychedelia, but alas, it soon descends into a cacophony that I had to grit my teeth to sit through.

In short, really not to my taste I’m afraid and while it may suit that of some art house fanatics, I can’t imagine Canada in Space will have much commercial acclaim.

Avatar for Thomas S. Day
Thomas S. Day 93 Articles
Fav Band: Bombay Bicycle Club Fave Album: Black Holes And Revelations - Muse Email: tom@xsnoize.com

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