Cowboy Junkies - Open on CD

Description

Amazon.co.uk In the three years between Open and their previous studio release--the slightly over-produced but nevertheless compelling Miles from Our Home--Cowboy Junkies have done some conspicuous clearing of their cupboards. There was the odds-and-sods compilation Rarities, B-Sides and Slow, Sad Waltzes and a live album, 200 More Miles. Such behaviour is characteristic of a band in the throes of reinvention, and Open serves to confirm this suspicion. Unfortunately, Cowboy Junkies have embarked on this change in course with the wrong map--basically, they have retained the studio bombast that marred Miles from Our Home and abandoned the choruses that just about redeemed it. Throughout Open, Margo Timmins' glorious voice is wasted on a series of songs that rely rather too hopefully on the ability of an interminable guitar solo to compensate for an absence of melody. The lovely, mournful "Bread & Wine" at least suggests that they haven't quite forgotten what made them great, but there is no argument here for not listening to Trinity Session or The Caution Horses instead. --Andrew Mueller