SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: COWBOY JUNKIES – SUCH FEROCIOUS BEAUTY

Cowboy Junkies
Such Ferocious Beauty
Latent Recordings

The Cowboy Junkies are back with their first release of new material in five years, the much-anticipated Such Ferocious Beauty.

Principal songwriter Michael Timmins had time to reflect and take stock, offering insights on the consequences of aging including losing parents, and facing mortality. According to lead vocalist, Margo Timmins, “Mike has never shied away from the darker, harder, and sometimes uglier realities of our human condition”.

The album opens with “What I Lost” and the lone guitar striking chords at the beginning immediately sets the tone for the rest of the song, leading up to Margo Timmins’ haunting vocals.

The sense of introspection continues on “Hard To Build. Easy to Break”. Like much of the Cowboy Junkies previous work, it is hard to pigeonhole this song into a category, because it has elements of rock, country, and folk. The instrumentation is tight, and Margo Timmins’ vocals colour the song perfectly.

Humour creeps in with “Mike Tyson (Here It Comes)”. The lyric is inspired by a quote that says, “Every man has a plan, until he’s punched in the mouth”. However, the song is serious, dealing with life’s challenges and how we deal with them.

Such Ferocious Beauty is an album that requires careful listening to be appreciated. If it is treated like wallpaper, the subtle nuances will be lost, but if you take time to simply listen, the layers start to reveal themselves. This is a worthy addition to the Cowboy Junkies catalogue.

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