Dala- Angels & Thieves (WWWW)
(Big Sun/Universal)
With Michelle Branch throwing
temper tantrums the minute she receives some criticism (spending more time
shutting down her message board than on writing good songs, which have been
lacking), Sarah McLachlan’s and Nelly Furtado’s latest albums getting lukewarm
receptions (while the albums by John Mayer and Jasom Mraz flopped) and
stalwarts like Chantal Kreviazuk and Jewel apparently on vacation, the whole
field of adult contemporary pop has seen an ever-widening vacuum get created.
Mind you, the music world as a whole has a power vacuum the size of the Grand
Canyon, so the AC world isn’t the only genre that’s suffering from a lack of
starpower.
However, amidst the bleakness
of the music world at this moment, one star is on the rise, and that is the
star of Toronto’s own Dala, a folk-pop duo formed in 2002 comprised of Sheila
Carabine and Amanda Walther. “Angels & Thieves”, their major label debut,
came out in November 2005 but is now starting to get buzz from leadoff single
“Twenty Something”, now a chart success on Country Music Television Canada and
Bravo! Canada. Much is made of the ladies’ budding success, and judging by
“Angels & Thieves”, it’s a success that’s bound to only increase.
The one thing that sticks out
the most about “Angels & Thieves” are Dala’s impeccable wordplay and the
duo’s great, complimentary voices in the form of Carabine’s dulcet tones and
Walther’s cheeky high pitched voice, intangibles that most bands in any genre
don’t possess. As far as lyrics are concerned, the best example is “Where Have
All The Boys Gone?”, a tongue-in-cheek send-off to the men who snubbed the band
to play poker. “You said I was your Queen/But you traded me in for a straight
flush to win” moans one line, while another defiantly declares to “Take your
spade out of my heart”, lines that couldn’t capture the ladies’ mood any
better. With regards to the vocals, the catchy and engaging “Twenty Something”
displays the band’s great interplay chemistry with Carabine and Walther
alternating well-written lines, while the dark “Love Song” and “Catch The Wind”
displays the band’s versatility, in that both are soothing ballads that add a
lot of depth to the album. Other highlights include the Tori Amos-inspired “A
Man Needs A Maid” and the equally engaging (and slightly more optimistically
toned) title track. Simply put, all the way through it’s impossible to get
bored of the album.
In short, in of itself,
“Angels & Thieves” is nearly flawless- it’s one of those albums that’s so
well co-ordinated that nothing bad sticks out like a sore thumb, which is
great. Perhaps if I really had to dig it’d be that “Drive-Thru Summer” isn’t as
lively on the album as it is live, but let it be known that recorded it’s still
a masterful song and besides, once it gets released in the summertime (Dala
confirmed at the show at York University that it’ll be the second single),
it’ll fit right in. In short, “Angels & Thieves” should establish Dala as
the stars the music world is lacking, and shows a band whose work can only get
better.
-DG