From the ramshackle first few bars of "Leaving," as the band slide into a groove and syncopated guitar and airy piano usher along Katie Moore's trademark gentle vibrato (made lush here by Angela Desveaux on backup vocals) it's clear that Fooled By The Fun, Moore's third record, is as much a band album as it is a singer-songwriter one.
Moore and her long-term collaborators (including producer Warren Spicer of Plants and Animals, members of Silver Mt. Zion and Socalled) recorded half at her parents' home in Hudson, Quebec, and half at Montreal's Mixart Studio, getting as much down live as possible, and augmenting with strings later.
As shown on 2011's Montebello, Moore excels at writing beautifully slow, melancholic songs; but where Montebello had an almost Spanish-inflected folk vibe, Fooled By The Fun is soulful, funky and sometimes even fun, as the band take Moore's mid-tempo tendencies and mix spice up more than a little bit — see the dramatic build of "Talked All Night," the Beatles-indebted eighth note piano of "Go Home" or the dance party on "Find You Near," which sees the band going full-on folk-funk.
The soulful country-funk title track speaks bitterly yet lovingly of an estranged friend, but the album's most surprising success lies in its easy listening moment: Moore and her band's version of Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You" is missing a chord, yet it's blessed with that special one-take spirit that, along with some sexy guitar licks care of Mike O'Brien, makes for an addictive listen.
(Club Roll)Moore and her long-term collaborators (including producer Warren Spicer of Plants and Animals, members of Silver Mt. Zion and Socalled) recorded half at her parents' home in Hudson, Quebec, and half at Montreal's Mixart Studio, getting as much down live as possible, and augmenting with strings later.
As shown on 2011's Montebello, Moore excels at writing beautifully slow, melancholic songs; but where Montebello had an almost Spanish-inflected folk vibe, Fooled By The Fun is soulful, funky and sometimes even fun, as the band take Moore's mid-tempo tendencies and mix spice up more than a little bit — see the dramatic build of "Talked All Night," the Beatles-indebted eighth note piano of "Go Home" or the dance party on "Find You Near," which sees the band going full-on folk-funk.
The soulful country-funk title track speaks bitterly yet lovingly of an estranged friend, but the album's most surprising success lies in its easy listening moment: Moore and her band's version of Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You" is missing a chord, yet it's blessed with that special one-take spirit that, along with some sexy guitar licks care of Mike O'Brien, makes for an addictive listen.