Rock Plaza Central

"We’ll keep out all the people who don’t like us,” sings RPC front-man Chris Eaton on the opening track "A Town At The Bottom Of The Ocean.” It seems an apt notion for a band that sounds bent on pure self expression. Although a published author, Torontonian Eaton comes from the Mary-Margaret O’Hara/Bob Wiseman/Jane Siberry school of spontaneity (in fact, they cover Siberry’s "You Don’t Need.”) It’s an approach that takes a bit of adjustment, but once it all clicks, as on the glorious building "The Things That Bind You,” the effect is mesmerising. The key is obviously how the band as a whole connects with Eaton’s lyrical abstractions, and for the most part, this is done successfully, with extra credit going to producer Andy Magoffin, who can chalk up another fascinating project captured at his House of Miracles. The most interesting aspects of The World Was Hell To Us are the moments when it conjures up the aforementioned period of Canadian rock where there seemed to be no boundaries, or to paraphrase Siberry, no borders. We may have come far musically from those heady days in the late ’80s, but when a record this ambitious comes along, it’s a pointed reminder of how stagnant things in some ways have remained.