Sometimes it's easy to forget how much we associate certain vocal timbres with particular music styles, until a band like Rain Over St. Ambrose comes on the stereo. Cory Le Blanc, lead vocalist for the Yarmouth-bred East Coast rock group, has a powerful, gruff tone, the sort you'd expect to find in a much heavier band than his own. Instead, there's a lightness and momentum to the band's brand of rock and roll, each song propelled forward with steady bass and drums and jittery guitar riffs.
Still Waking Up, the band's second full-length, is hardly the most distinctive of rock records, outside of its vocal dynamics, but that doesn't mean it's not well done. On the contrary, it's full of great little moments, from the speedy title track's chorus of backing vocals to the lengthy outro groove of penultimate song "Un Orage." Producer Tim D'Eon of Wintersleep gives the songs just enough kick to make even the less memorable songs seem mighty, as if each of them are fighting to be the tiny anthem that gets stuck in your head.
(Acadian Embassy)Still Waking Up, the band's second full-length, is hardly the most distinctive of rock records, outside of its vocal dynamics, but that doesn't mean it's not well done. On the contrary, it's full of great little moments, from the speedy title track's chorus of backing vocals to the lengthy outro groove of penultimate song "Un Orage." Producer Tim D'Eon of Wintersleep gives the songs just enough kick to make even the less memorable songs seem mighty, as if each of them are fighting to be the tiny anthem that gets stuck in your head.