Spun: City and Colour

By Marina Foo

Where Dallas Green rocks in screamo act Alexisonfire, he shows off his softer side with acoustic side-project City and Colour. With Bring Me Your Love, it shows he’s willing to take both roles seriously.

While the band’s first release, Sometimes, wasn’t overpowered by Green’s guitar, it suffered from clumsy arrangements. Bring Me Your Love buries the guitar where it should be by accentuating the melody and not itself. Couple this lush mixing with some traditional folk instrumentation and Bring Me Your Love triumphs in most of the places where Sometimes faltered. On “What Makes a Man?” Dallas expands his well developed and distinctive melodic sensibilities. On track “Sleeping Sickness,” Tragically Hip singer Gordon Downie’s vocals are a fantastic counterpoint to Green’s lead.

“The Girl” is easily the most ambitious City and Colour song to date, starting as a ballad, mutating into a country ho-down and ending with a funereal dirge. Within the span of six minutes, Green trumps everything he’s accomplished before, which unfortunately makes the last two songs superfluous. “The Girl” is the emotional climax of the album and it proves what Dallas Green is capable of when he’s willing to take a few risks.