Cowboy Junkies
Early 21st Century Blues
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Odd that one of the most sullen Americana groups has an album that starts off with 11 seconds of laughing, but this collection of covers proves to be their most political album yet, as every track is an anti-war song. Highlights include John Lennon's "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" and George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity.
Latent since scoring a critical and commercial hit with their spare and intentionally soporific second album, 1988's The Trinity Sessions, Canada's Cowboy Junkies have struggled to record another milestone in hazy aural narcotics. Their latest, a mostly covers album, closely revisits the career-making Trinity, as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Richie Havens,
Read More George Harrison and U2 all undergo the Junkies' slow and somber treatment -- hushed electric guitars, brushed drums and frontwoman Margo Timmins' husky moans. The exception: John Lennon's "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" morphs into muted, clumsy hip-hop. It all adds up to a concept album about war that screams with a whisper.
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