Review – Canterbury: Dark Days
Dark Days
is, without a doubt, Canterbury at their best. With each new album, a band hopes to better their last, and it’s always a shame when they fall short, but that is by no means the case for these guys. The pledge system used to create the record proved their strong, loyal fan base, who had faith in this project from the start – and they weren’t wrong.
The album title suggests a deeper, more mature sound, and this is a good way to start describing the record. While still maintaining the unique sound which marks Canterbury out from the rest of the crowd, Dark Days has developed and matured it, as any band hopes to do with each successive record. Old fans will still love them, and many new ones will be enticed. They show off their range with some tracks that are bold and aggressive, and others that are mellow and dreamy, while still all blending together to create the sense of unity a good album needs. Their own musical talent is backed up by a plethora of other instruments, including strings and trumpets, giving the album a bigger and deeper sound, and the gang vocals make songs reach out to listeners, making the tracks bigger than the band themselves. Lyrically, this is also true, with poetically worded songs that many will be able to relate to. From start to finish, there isn’t any song weaker than the rest. Canterbury have cemented themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the world of rock music, and this album is a sign that only better things are to come.
Favourite tracks – Expensive Imitation, All My Life, Satellite, Hold Your Own, Elephant
