Album Review: The Fugitives - The Fugitives

 

Whether you come from a rock, country or folk outlook the latest record from The Fugitives meets you head on and lays down its worth. The eleven track effort is awash with great hooks, optimum vocal parts and a golden thread of roots musicianship. It brings the inclusive emotion of the stage to the studio and chisels out as Canadian band music with a cultured edge. The quieter moments hold court with mouth watering intimacy, while the uplifting content rattles a ceiling being breached. 

All seven previous studio albums have accrued tangible industry recognition including Juno nominations and this self-titled eighth will no doubt pique interest across the spectrum. From a design template to capture the essence of touring in the writing, The Fugitives, headed by co-writing team Adrian Glynn & Brendan McLeod, have gone a step further and transplanted the whole experience into tracks satisfyingly enjoyed in multiple settings. 

The album finds its rhythm at the outset with anthem-like qualities spilling out of the uplifting fiddle accompanied ‘Wolf Road’ - a song about crossing the Canadian Shield on winter tours. The positive vibes rarely slide before the signing off climax of ‘Windows Open’ which veers from temperate to measured to escalating in a memorable ending. 

Expect a cacophony of sounds including banjo, harmonica, heaps of fiddle and plenty of brass. All tenderly applied and in the spirit of the studio meets a lavish stage. Whistles open and close the inspiring ‘Holy Strength’, one of numerous songs to set the imagination racing to festival fields and vibrant halls, and a further dip into the backstory reveals the track as an ode to the unsung heroes of the performance infrastructure. 

Stand out moments stack up. On one listen it's the strong opening and bold chorus to the popular appealing ‘Firefight’, then another feasts on the hair standing moments induced by ‘Young Enough’, definitely one of the vocal highs on the record. ‘Reckoning’ sways between good and excellent with the latter becoming the dominant descriptor from another track with a profound opening and stellar melody. A trait and strength of this album. 

In addition to the location named in the opener, a couple more places get name checked in the title and theme. ‘Cafe Deux’ is a pulsating listen and refers to a legendary venue in Vancouver’s hip quarter. Thousands of miles across the pond ‘Glastonbury’ - yes that one - gets the nod in track 2 and a story reminiscing about the band’s appearance there. Instrumentally, we get the first snippet of brass here. 

‘Under the Ice’, ‘River Hymn’ and ‘As an Ending’ all shine in the less intense moments and reflect that part of a show where tempo readjustments are welcome. The first two take respective influences from playing in Saskatoon and an ode to the Fraser River in Western Canada. The third possesses an acoustic bliss and the lyrics are from the perspective of a stolen guitar, not a theme you come across regularly. 

The Fugitives get the balance spot on and have created a blueprint of prime engagement. The complete nature to an overarching enjoyable album seals the impact. A slice of life on the road funnelled through the capable qualities of the studio.