I went to see the my friends, The Monster Show, perform last week, in celebration of their new CD: In our final days as archipelago.

These are well crafted songs -- diverse, with a musical trajectory that opens up vivid feelings and memories.  (Including some infectiously danceable feelings and memories.)  Duncan takes the specifics - anecdotal observations - and crafts them into something poetic and surprising.  Some examples: A flood in Winnipeg, biking home at night while slightly drunk, the babe who holds the “slow/stop” sign for road construction....  It is so pleasing to get away from generic terms of endearment, and into some lyrical invention.

(Duncan’s literary skill takes other forms than songwriting, too: he scored a spot at the Eden Mills Fringe Stage a few years ago).

Many of the lyrics have a longing and loss about them, but then a music jam kicks in to introduce something of euphoria.  The hope sneaks in, unspoken, between the words.  These songs aren’t just chorus and bridge predictability, but the music draws you into changing moods and atmospheres.  Rising action, climax, and release.  (Hmmm, did that come out right?) 

The title track is contemplative and beautiful, featuring a choir... Actually, the “choir” was a group of revelers, recorded in Duncan’s living room.  I happened to be there, with Arden (my 8 year old daughter), as we ate and drank and sang.  Arden is so proud that her name finds its way into the CD booklet.  But something of the warmth of that gathering, informal and relational, infuses the music.

(And the CD design by Jessica Devic is very nice, too... are those some Banksy references I see?)