I was thinking about Canada the other day and all sorts of things drifted into the empty hangars of my mind. Things like Holly Cole (sigh!), The Shrapnelles (yaaas!) and enough dispossessed Americana whingers to justify a cull. Seals are cute and beards are not, if you follow my drift. Trips and Falls turned out to be Canadian but the evidence presented in "People Need To Be Told" saves them from the bat.
Not that Trips and Falls can be categorised as Americana for they are of a different breed entirely and draw heavily from the influences of the urban intelligentsia usually found in big cities like Glasgow, Edinburgh and Oslo. You can guess therefore that this is a serious set of songs that aim not to uplift your spirits to but to draw you into them. Thus, the complexity should be no surprise and consequently it does take a good few listens before this album pops into focus. "Marginally More Than Mildly Annoying" , for example, sounds more than mildly disjointed on first listen but makes perfect sense when you let your mind loose on it. Of the rest of the songs, "This is all Going to End Badly" stands proud while simultaneously managing to evoke both Simon & Garfunkel and Nirvana.
I can't say, in all truth, that "People Need To Be Told" is my kind of album. Nonetheless, I had to admire the care that has obviously gone into its creation and I am more than happy to applaud it for becoming more interesting with each passing listen.