#1 City and Colour - 'Bring Me Your Love'

#1
City And Colour – ‘Bring Me Your Love’
Vagrant Records
Released February 18, 2008

Wow, so I’ve finally made it. I kinda can’t believe it’s the end of 2008 already..I know it’s horribly cliche to say, but it feels like it just started.  I probably said the same thing last year and will do so again next year.  That’s life I suppose. Musically speaking, it’s been a pretty solid year..with some old faves making big comebacks, some really disappointing records, and some artists coming from off the radar to really surprise me.  My number one this year sorta fits into that last category – to an extent at least.  I knew all about City and Colour before this year, I knew who Dallas Green was, I knew his last record was pretty good, but I had no way to forsee this happening. When I first heard this record back in the winter, I knew it would be something special for me, but I half expected my feelings towards it to fade away into the sunset as the year went by and for the cd to end up with a spot down in the 20s or something here on my list. If there’s one thing ‘BMYL’ had though, it’s staying power. It remained a staple for me throughout the entire year, and I have yet to sour on it in the least bit. If anything, I love it more today than ever.  For those of you who are uneducated on the matter, Dallas Green is the singer of semi-hardcore whatever band Alexisonfire, and this is his solo project. It’s a collection of 12 fairly simple songs about love, heartache, loss, death, and pain played with the support of the obvious acoustic guitar and a few other folky trimmings served up here and there for good measure.  The appeal is fairly obvious here, the lyrics are comprised of themes most people out there in BEP land can probably relate to on some level or another, and Green’s voice, practically flooded with honesty,  is the perfect vessel  to deliver them to our ears. It’s not all that often that a record remains my favorite of the year for, well, most of the year.  Obviously, as I mentioned the other day, there were a few other contenders. Anything in the top five or six could have been right here, but in the end, it wouldn’t have felt right. This feels right to me.
Ya know, as I listen to this cd now, the one memory of this record that stands out in my mind is roadtripping to AZ with my buddy Fool Of Gold. I remember listening to this cd as we drove through El Paso I think it was, as I was trying to sell him on the cd as I do with many things, and while I don’t think my efforts paid off, it really solidified the cd for me. Maybe it was the scenery, maybe it was the idea of the journey, maybe it was knowing I was probably spending time with one of my best friends for the last time for a while, I don’t know. What I do know is that, for me, that moment sticks out in my head, and this record, especially the ‘Against The Grain’ song,  is the soundtrack to it.  Sigh. Anyway, this album is stellar, amazing, fantastic, and any other overwhelmingly positive adjective you can think of. I love it so very much. It’s my favorite record of 2008. See you next year!
Standout Songs: ‘Against The Grain’, ‘The Girl’, and ‘Sleeping Sickness’