Under Your Shadow
Al Tuck
New Scotland
Records.
SCQ Rating: 72%
As a songwriter, Al
Tuck revolves his own peculiar planet. He has venerable ties throughout
Atlantic Canada’s music community and yet his music has yet to incorporate
another’s sound or muse. Fittingly Under Your Shadow presents Tuck as a pillar
unto himself, resting heavily upon rootsy arrangements and his understated
delivery even amid a loose ensemble of contributing musicians.
What isolates Tuck’s
seventh studio recording proves to be its complimentary, off-the-cuff feel;
that despite a lot of obvious forethought put into Under Your Shadow’s formation,
it toes the line of creativity not yet settled in place. His insistence on
overcast acoustic tones and light discord are saved by the latent energy in
arrangements that lift this typical singer-songwriter fare from the doldrums.
From the small-town couplet that drives through full-band swagger (‘Ducktown’)
and sleepy organ passages (‘Yawnsville’) to the rich folk of ‘Slapping the Make
On You’, Tuck keeps listeners alert by trading sly shades of comedy and
earnestness.
Despite his strong
sense of self, Tuck’s talents require careful, repeated listens before fully
springing forth and, even then, Under Your Shadow has its road-bumps. ‘Hello,
Prince Edward Island’, a live track dropped halfway through the album of all
places, doesn’t exactly gel with the patient folk-strewn atmosphere built up
until then, but it bears the charm of a songwriter who plays perpetually on the
cusp.
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