Canyons: Keep Your Dreams - Album Review

Canyons
Keep Your Dreams
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Aussie duo Canyons, Leo Holiday and Ryan Sea-mist, can easily be lumped into the prog/psych/electro rock category housing artists like Empire of the Sun, MGMT, and Yeahsayer. But where those bands have a more pop-leaning slant, for the most part, Canyons embrace being completely weird and experimental, and actually the more bizarre they are, the more fun they are. Where they attempt to make more traditional pop songs is where they lose what makes them so distinctive in the first place. The first single off Keep Your Dreams, "See Blind Through," is a prime example of where they hit things perfectly. The song, a fat slice of deep house, comes complete with slinky bass-synths, acid house synth stabs, and chopped vocal samples.



"Blue Snakes" loops a slithering sax line around thumping beats, whooshing synths, and rave vocals.

Canyons - Blue Snakes by modularpeople

And by far the weirdest song on the album, "Under A Blue Sky," is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink melange of disco beats, saxophones, twinkly keyboards, vocodered french vocals, and even elephant noises.

Canyons - Under A Blue Sky by modularpeople

Some of the more traditional songs have promise. "When I See You Again" has a David Gray acoustic-electro vibe that actually fits the driving force of the song.

Canyons - When I See You Again by modularpeople

And I enjoyed the shuffling, slackertude of "Tonight."

Canyons - Tonight by modularpeople

Often though, the songs seem like overwrought demos in need of a severe critical ear. "My Rescue" is all build with no release, the vocals too wispy and nasally to carry what is meant to be a distinctive "moment" on the record.

Canyons - My Rescue by modularpeople

"And We Dance" is another kitchen sink song, but instead of being cute and charming is unfortunately 7:00 minutes of mismatched genre hopping and dreadful pacing.

Canyons - And We Dance by modularpeople

"Circadia" and "The Bridge" attempt to evoke pastoral IDM and acid house, respectively, and fail to make much of an impression with either.

Canyons - The Bridge by modularpeople

Keep Your Dreams is far from a failure, but is mostly an exercise is not knowing what works best for your band and making an unholy mess of things. There are elements here that, if they had kept on script, would have made for a much more cohesive listening experience. It's difficult to write this band off yet based on this album, and one can only hope they realize what their strengths are and stick to them.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.