Canadians - A Sky With No Stars

by Eddie Robson

Five gentlemen of Verona

"No, of course they’re not from Canada. Surely you could work that much out? Calling your band ‘Canadians’ when you’re actually Canadian would be like calling your band ‘Some People’ or, er, ‘The Band’."

No, of course they’re not from Canada. Surely you could work that much out? Calling your band ‘Canadians’ when you’re actually Canadian would be like calling your band ‘Some People’ or, er, ‘The Band’. No, Canadians are another of the new wave of Italian English-language rock groups which are getting an increasing level of attention from the rest of the world – indeed, the Italian music scene now is not unlike the Canadian scene ten or so years ago.

‘A Sky With No Stars’ is an interesting fusion of post-hardcore bluster and Tahiti 80-style indietronica jangle-pop. Despite being rather like Weezer (‘Ode to the Season’ is strongly reminiscent of Weezer’s ‘Holiday’) and The Postal Service it sounds very European though not specifically Italian, mainly because who knows what the ‘Italian’ sound is? NN has heard about three Italian rock records in its life, including this one – all of them in the past year. This is precisely what could make the Italian scene so interesting – we’re not quite sure what to expect from it.

The use of keyboards to add a wide-eyed quality to the music is quite inspired in places: the great opening of ‘15th of August’, for example. Closer ‘Good News’, one of the best tracks here, uses synth sparkles very effectively as part of its slow climb from ambivalence to euphoria. It fits the band’s mix of teen angst and teen enthusiasm very well.

Unfortunately, the album does get a bit one-note, and you may well feel steamrollered by its wall-of-guitars approach to every song: some tracks, like ‘Summer Teenage Girl’, feel like they could be something more if they were tackled in a less obvious way. Rather than loud-quiet-loud, it’s loud-quiet-loud-loud-loud-loud-quiet-loud-loud-loud, and the loud bits could do with more texture. This fault could potentially be refined in their future work, but this album is a bit difficult to swallow, in spite of some good tracks.

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