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One Soul Now
Cowboy Junkies
Zoe/Latent Recordings, 2004
REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/11/2004
Yeah, it's another Cowboy Junkies release. Got a problem withthat?
The Cowboy Junkies don't perform any left-field artistic detoursor harden their sound or strip their sound down on their tenthalbum, One Soul Now. Listen to their first release, The TrinitySessions and follow the band up to One Soul Now and you'll hear a band that has slowly changedits sound so subtlety, many casual fans will find be hard-pressedto differentiate one Junkies album from another. Their evolution issimilar to that of a river or a lake - you don't see the changeunless you take a snapshot and return to the same site five or tenyears later.
One Soul Now's title track starts with a Margo Timmins'voice going into a funky, laid back groove, but the song reallykicks into gear midway through when Micahel Timmins' lays a guitarriff that is as expansive as a desolate country highway. MichaelTimmins' guitar work is blusier than on their last release, Open.He also remains one of the most underrated songwriters in rock.However, some of the songs have their inconsistencies; a lyricbordering on cliché is followed by a zinger, as in the song"Why This One": "Strange and odd, twisted as a contradiction / Aglittering jewel of flaws and celebration."
Like Open and Miles From Our Home and even their most radically-diversealbum, Pale Sun, Crescent Moon, One Soul Now has a few notableCowboy Junkies mainstays: a poppy song that is just accessibleenough to be heard on adult contemporary radio or as overhead musicin a Von Maur clothing store ("Stars of Our Stars"), Jesus imagery("Simon Keeper", "The Slide") and a much-needed rave-up to break upthe "sameness" of their slower songs ("No Long Journey Home"). Ifyou are a critic with no understanding of the Cowboy Junkies, youmay dismiss this as being formulaic. If you're a fan, it's the markconsistency.
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