Canada has been developing its own brand of indie-western music, especially western Canada, the land of ranchers, oil-rigs, and Conservative voters who don’t speak French, with Wildfires being some of its latest. The record has an impressive pedigree, being produced by Darryl Neudorf (who’s worked with north-of-the-border indie-country all-stars The New Pornographers and solo Neko Case), mixed by Noah Mintz (Broken Social Scene), and features guest-spots from the likes of Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) and other Maple Leaf-wavers. And The Mohawk Lodge show quite a few moments of brilliance on Wildfires – more than its missteps.
Album opener “Hard Times” begins with singer/guitarist Ryder Havdale’s soft strumming and a voice that sounds almost exactly like Coldplay’s Chris Martin. But before it could get all weepy and whiney, a fine alt-country tune breaks out, working very well with Havdale’s vocals, that are – just like Martin’s – quite strong. However, Wildfires main fault is that it goes to this well too often, with diminishing results. The slightly more languishing “Everybody’s On Fire” grows nicely, but lacks the grip of “Times”, while the even slower “Timber” that follows has a lot of emotion and gets in your head, but the track’s over-simplicity makes it feel more like it’s stuck in your head. And the record reaches its nadir with middle track “Calm Down”, a slow, boring, and unjustified retread. There is one exception to this ‘sequels not as good as the original’ trend, and that’s with the penultimate “Why Would You?”, wherein The Mohawk Lodge delivers a sad, slow, folk-croon about why you shouldn’t give artists anything, as they’d just waste it, and so would you. While one wouldn’t want a whole album of “Why”s, this one song is funny and enjoyable, and doesn’t wear out.
“Why Would You?” also bears out another key point about Wildfires: While “Hard Times” is great, the record is better, the farther it strays from that formula. The rollicking, but touching, “Wear ‘Em Out” is a great combo of laid back rock ‘n’ roll and emotion, while the fun, but still substantial, “Heart Of Lovers” is more pressing, with some very nice blues-styling guitars. And although the darker, ‘going to Hell’-country of the title track gets a little too involved at times, the shadowy, bass heavy, country road of album finisher “Rising Sun” totally works, with an explosive and powerful chorus that somehow completely connects the song’s shadier sections to its brighter middle.
On their sophomore release, The Mohawk Lodge show some expansive growth from the strong fundamentals of 2004’s Rare Birds. If they’d only kept exploring those vast frontiers, Wildfires might have made something epic, but as it stands, they’re still headed down on the right trail.
– Anna Vesely
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