There are a number of rock albums that chronicle the tragic loss of a friend or loved one. Hovering at the top of that list are offerings like Sufjan Steven's Carrie and Lowell, Arcade Fire's Funeral and Crowded House's Time on Earth. All of which are some of the best long-play albums dedicated to the sudden death of a parent, friend or partner.
The Canadian band City and Colour release another entry onto the list with The Love Still Held Me Near. Dallas Green the frontman for the band has stated the twelve-song effort was born out of the sudden tragic loss of Green's best friend and the aftermath.
The album's subject is a journey through loss and grief. It relates to the heartache that follows and the search for answers. The songs ponder the eternal quandary of how we live when we know we have a death sentence hovering over our heads. The idea of an entire album dedicated to the idea of mourning and death would seem like a daunting listen, but City and Colour have a knack for chronicling mankind's gloomiest topics and turning them into an engaging listen. On The Love Still Held Me Near, Green once again takes a lot of dark thoughts and wraps them up in the most beautiful, apt sonics and makes the whole endeavour relatable.
Sonically the album builds on many of the musical motifs utilized on their 2019 release A Pill for Loneliness but also differs in that this time more than on any of their other albums, Green's vocals do a lot of heavy lifting as he is front and centre throughout the recording.
The Love Still Held Me Hear opens with "Meant to Be" as opening acoustic guitars build to a glorious cranking electric guitar motif. The track is thought-provoking as the lyrics question what can fix pain and loss; could it be faith accepting our possible predestined outcome or dusting ourselves off and facing one day at a time? Regardless of the choice Green and Co seem determined to find out as they progress through the release. The first featured single "Underground" is a rocker with a serious message that weighs the options of falling apart with loss or continuing the fight. The takeaway at the end of the song is realizing death will always be the spectre at the feast so we have to make the most of the time we are given.
The mid-tempo "Fucked It Up" blends together the ideas of our dissatisfaction with what we have and how we undermine our most important relationships. Best stated by the lyrics; "We had everything we wanted, then we fucked it up... we had everything we needed but it wasn't enough." Here the narrator is stating we are often our own worst enemies. The song spins out over a great rock accompaniment that is alluring. The title track "The Love Still Holds Me Near" is an essential City and Colour track. The fantastic chiming guitar really makes for a winning selection. Green goes through an exercise of imagining the worst has happened and the person he loves the most is gone.
He is tormented by the fear he has not told the person he loves how much he loves them. The song wraps up with his exhorting everyone to say what they mean now, and have no doubt. With this track, Green gives a master class in blending fantastic meaningful lyrics with brilliant sonics and producing a memorable track. The ghostly "A Little Mercy" points out that every death is a tragedy for everyone in a person's world.
The stand-out track of the release is "The Things We Choose to Care About" which really gets to the core of how shocking it is to realize that one moment a person is there and the next gone without a trace forever. The lyrics are brilliant, "How can you just walk out on me without a trace... there's not enough whiskey to ease a tormented mind". The eternal question is what brings worth to the things we choose to care about? The track is riveting while Green's vocals impress over the acoustic accompaniment.
The song "Without Warning" introduces a country/soul sonic with a steel guitar. Green takes no prisoners singing this track. The theme is divided between being a straightforward love song and a search for resilience after loss. "Hard, Hard Time" finds Green seeking to strike a deal with the spectre of death, as he vows to not get so caught up with the inevitability of death that he forgets to live his life to the fullest.
"The Water is Coming" turns from personal loss and grief to look at our current world situation. This rocker could have come straight from the early days of City and Colour circa Little Hell. Green examines how society has come to the point where we care so little for those around us. Expressed best by the lyric "You will not care for me, so I will not care for you." He posits that if we continue in this manner we are doomed. There is a glorious guitar ending to this song that strikes the right chord for this brilliant song.
The final track "Begin Again" is a short acoustic effort that is a gentle benediction to the album and its theme. Green comes to the conclusion that Death is a beast we cannot defeat, but that doesn't mean we should be overwhelmed by that fact. The idea conveyed is that each individual is broken by the deaths and losses we experience, like a shattered vase that can be glued together but will always have the evidence of those losses found in the cracks that remain.
City and Colour with The Love Still Held Me Near delivers an engaging recording portraying one man's attempt to deal with loss and heartache. Green pulls no punches in discussing the long-lasting pain of death or its inevitability. He lures the listener in with his proprietary musical signatures and awesome guitar licks while beguiling with his clean alluring vocals. Songwriters across the millenniums have turned pain into prose. Green can be counted among those songwriters who wholeheartedly sing about grief from personal experience. The apt touch that is required for this topic is often elusive but Green and Co delivers just the right amount of emotion, forthrightness and sensitivity to bring off a noteworthy recording.
