Gladshot - Burn Up & Shine / Wendy Leung - Stop/Start

Over the next week or two, I'm going to try to squeeze out as many CD recommendations as I can before December hits because, as we all know, December always means a series of "best of" lists and there's a lot of CD's that I've been listening to that may or may not make the final cut, but are still worth checking out either way. And I've been listening to quite a few so since my actual concert goings are grinding down to a finish for the year, now's an excellent time to blog about some of the lesser known stuff I've been listening to.

My immediate reference point upon listening to Burn Up and Shine, the third album by New York's Gladshot, was to describe it as a mix of Barney Bentall and Wild Strawberries. However, unless you're a Canadian who was glued to his TV set watching a CanCon motivated Much Music circa 1989, you likely have no idea what I'm talking about. So the best thing to do is describe Debbie Andrews and Mike Blaxill's band as a very accessible slice of upbeat pop music that is stripped of all pretention and in existence strictly for our joyful entertainment. The album consists of some roots based pop songs (All I Want Is You, Fabulous Friends and American Night;) some summer highway driving rockers (Straight From The Fridge and Slo Glide Ride) and even a bluesy country number or two (1961 and I Can't Tell.) For my money however, the standouts are the cooler numbers; the ones that showcase Debbie's sulty vocals (He Was Gone and especially Nobody's Looking.) While the album doesn't tread any grand unchartered territory, it's still quite an enjoyable listen that can bring back the feeling of summer during the frigid months ahead.

Gladshot photo from myspace
Myspace: Gladshot
Video: Fabulous Friends on youtube
Download: All I Want Is You mp3

Download: Nobody's Looking mp3


There is definitely an overabundance of "girl with piano" artists on the music scene these days, and this is equally true within the Toronto music scene. So what makes one stand out from the other? Well, if there's a uniqueness in the vocal styling, then that could make a difference. Sometimes playing a mean classical piano can be an immediate selling point. Oftentimes it's in the originally poetic lyricism. Although, Wendy Leung displays a measure of all of the above, what causes her to stand out for me, is her simple gift of melody. Admittedly it took a couple of listens for this fact to jump out at me, but her third release Stop/Start contains some of the most beautiful melodies I've heard recently. For example, album opener Warpaint and Love has almost a Ben Folds feel, albeit more in the subtle vein of Selfless, Cold and Composed as opposed to the angry Song For The Dumped vein. Dear Edison is another catchy number, with lyrics that are well thought out and witty. Other ballads such as Better and Me Without You are at once both beautiful and haunting. My favourite song however is Goodbye (hey) which makes good use of the always potent build-up effect, making it stadium worthy in a way that Coldplay could only dream of accomplishing these days. While it's true that the CD contains a couple of moments that are a little bit too Sarah McLaughlin-like for me, there are definitely worse artists to be like, and I have to say that I've been coming back to this one quite a bit over the past week.

Wendy Leung photo by Shahin Edalati
Wendy Leung is playing The Supermarket on Tuesday December 2nd with Melissa Dalton and Lara Martin. I believe the cost is $6.

Myspace: Wendy Leung
Video: Better (live @ Cameron House) on youtube