A travelogue through farmland and tour life shot through a sepia lens, The Rise & the Fall sees the Rural Alberta Advantage present the well-rounded conclusion to last year's The Rise EP. Featuring all six previously released EP tracks in addition to seven brand new stories, The Rise & the Fall is a series of pulse-quickening vignettes through which the Toronto trio explore a naturalist brand of world building.
The songs on The Rise & the Fall have a deep connection to nature and the people who live on the land, an exploration of place and the journey to new ground. Things start off with the six The Rise tracks in order of their EP appearance. These older songs are retrospective, existing on a long and elastic timeline. They tell stories that take place over multiple generations, and in the case of "CANDU" — their heartbreaking song about Uranium City — they tell stories that require the historical context of years past.
The songs from The Rise blend well with the second half of the album — presumably The Fall — as the album works like a set of short stories, each song coming from a different perspective while interconnecting thematically.
Single "Plague Dogs" is the most aggressive song on the album, full of violent imagery that contrasts the gentler tone that the rest of the project takes. This eighth track bleeds into "Our Youth" which borrows from that same aggressive well before turning into "Lullaby," a shimmering, orchestrally inspired song that looks deep into the future. It's a welcome contrast to the backward-looking solemnity of songs like "CANDU" and "AB Bride."
"Don't Wake Up" explores place through the interconnection of one's life with others, touching on themes of aging and togetherness that float through the record's entirety, acknowledging them one last time before the final track.
"FSHG" is The Rise & the Fall's most vivid exploration of physical space, having been recorded live on the floor of producer Gavin Gardiner's studio. Fading into late evening cricket chirps and nature sounds before building to a throbbing climax of reversed tape and blooming drone, it ends the album on a sense of momentous closure.
The Rise & the Fall allows you to travel through the solitary vastness of Canada in the span of 46 minutes, a collection of vulnerable stories, the kind often shared amongst kin. Through thirteen unique slices of life, the Rural Alberta Advantage brings out the urge to run through an empty field, to spend time with loved ones by firelight. The record's deeply felt specificity doesn't close it off but rather opens it wide, expanding into the night.
(Paper Bag Records)The songs on The Rise & the Fall have a deep connection to nature and the people who live on the land, an exploration of place and the journey to new ground. Things start off with the six The Rise tracks in order of their EP appearance. These older songs are retrospective, existing on a long and elastic timeline. They tell stories that take place over multiple generations, and in the case of "CANDU" — their heartbreaking song about Uranium City — they tell stories that require the historical context of years past.
The songs from The Rise blend well with the second half of the album — presumably The Fall — as the album works like a set of short stories, each song coming from a different perspective while interconnecting thematically.
Single "Plague Dogs" is the most aggressive song on the album, full of violent imagery that contrasts the gentler tone that the rest of the project takes. This eighth track bleeds into "Our Youth" which borrows from that same aggressive well before turning into "Lullaby," a shimmering, orchestrally inspired song that looks deep into the future. It's a welcome contrast to the backward-looking solemnity of songs like "CANDU" and "AB Bride."
"Don't Wake Up" explores place through the interconnection of one's life with others, touching on themes of aging and togetherness that float through the record's entirety, acknowledging them one last time before the final track.
"FSHG" is The Rise & the Fall's most vivid exploration of physical space, having been recorded live on the floor of producer Gavin Gardiner's studio. Fading into late evening cricket chirps and nature sounds before building to a throbbing climax of reversed tape and blooming drone, it ends the album on a sense of momentous closure.
The Rise & the Fall allows you to travel through the solitary vastness of Canada in the span of 46 minutes, a collection of vulnerable stories, the kind often shared amongst kin. Through thirteen unique slices of life, the Rural Alberta Advantage brings out the urge to run through an empty field, to spend time with loved ones by firelight. The record's deeply felt specificity doesn't close it off but rather opens it wide, expanding into the night.
