Cowboy Junkies – Such Ferocious Beauty (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Cowboy Junkies – Such Ferocious Beauty (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:06 minutes | 417 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cooking Vinyl Limited

The album is vintage Cowboy Junkies and another dimension from the lo-fi Canadian band comprised of, well, family. A tangle of sonic textures, Beauty is a rumination on aging, losing parents, facing mortality and creating space for one’s life in the midst of the ruin that comes from merely living. ‘Mike has never shied away from the darker, harder and sometimes uglier realities of our human condition’, Margo Timmins explains of the band’s singular focus, ‘nor has he shied from its beauty. Thankfully, with one comes the other’.

Change isn’t always an artistic necessity. While some may wonder how a band could spend their entire 40-year career making similar midtempo tales of loss and woe, Cowboy Junkies fans know it’s about savoring the artistic synergy between siblings and the ways in which they beautify a musical style they know like the back of their hands. Despite the clanging repeated loop that opens “Flood,” the Junkies are still doing what led to their 1988 breakthrough The Trinity Session: meandering, slow-to-midtempo, most often acoustic explorations that are, in the end, very personal folk music. After 25 albums, the band remains anchored by the three Timmins siblings: brother Peter behind a minimal drum kit; Michael, the eldest, who still writes the songs and plays guitar; and the sweet-voiced, talented and sinuous vocalist Margo, the sister out front. The Cowboys are completed by bassist Alan Anton, who’s also been there since the beginning. Beautifully recorded, this set of originals (as opposed to covers which they’ve always been especially expert at) is opened up by Margo whose vocals—their lower range grown richer—deftly winds its way through “What I Lost.” Later, “Shadows 2” ups the rhythms just a notch, as it speaks of “the pain of falling leaves” a reference to their father’s recent disappearance into dementia. If there is a persistent weakness to all these tasteful, masterfully played expressions, it’s a lack of genuinely distinct melodies. “Hard to Build. Easy to Break.” is the catchiest number—still at a defiant midtempo, but with more interesting changes expertly placed by producer Michael over a snarling electric guitar. One area this family band has often been sneakily good at is lyrics, a skill that rises and sometimes falls here. While the acoustic guitar and voice dirge “Hell is Real” works off silly lines like “Hell is real/ Hell is hot” there is an unlikely highlight in “Mike Tyson (Here it Comes)” which opens with “Every man has a plan/ Until he’s punched in the mouth/ And then he starts to look about/ Some look within, some look without / The search begins as do the doubts/ Here it comes, here it comes.” The Junkies persona lies in the infinite ways a band can enrich a set style because clearly, they are secure where they are. – Robert Baird

Tracklist:
1-1. Cowboy Junkies – What I Lost (03:47)
1-2. Cowboy Junkies – Flood (04:22)
1-3. Cowboy Junkies – Hard to Build. Easy to Break. (04:18)
1-4. Cowboy Junkies – Circe and Penelope (03:36)
1-5. Cowboy Junkies – Hell Is Real (03:33)
1-6. Cowboy Junkies – Shadows 2 (03:40)
1-7. Cowboy Junkies – Knives (04:29)
1-8. Cowboy Junkies – Mike Tyson (Here It Comes) (04:02)
1-9. Cowboy Junkies – Throw a Match (03:44)
1-10. Cowboy Junkies – Blue Skies (03:32)

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