short on memorable tunes, lay the blame here, because tracks like "Chancellor," "Canada Geese" and "Lofty Pines" boast some of the finest melodies -- and metaphors -- Downie's ever come up with. The production -- all spooky guitars, piano and a bare-essentials drum sound somewhere between martial and lounge jazz -- is just as compelling; this isn't an album you rock out to -- it's an album you reach for on a long night drive. With all due respect to the Cowboy Junkies, Coke Machine Glow may well be the most hauntingly beautiful album to come out of the Great White North since Neil Young's Harvest.

RICHARD SKANSE
(July 9, 2001)