The Toronto-based group doesn’t let listeners hold back the watergates
Well folks, here you have it: the new album Sidelines by Wild Rivers has been released. It has been six years since their first self-titled LP and they’ve used the time to mature and develop their musical craft. Hailing from Toronto, Ontario, the Canadian folk band consists of Devan Glover, Khalid Yassein, and Andrew Oliver. Their use of songwriting elements often reminds avid neo-folk listeners of Gregory Alan Isakov, The Paper Kites, and Blanco White.
Sidelines is a thirty-minute trip down high school memory lane, reminiscing of the many milestones that are staples within one’s journey through adolescence. The opening track “More or Less” sets the theme for the rest of the album. The band is thinking back to the good old days of high school with lyrics like “The best friend you had for ten years, that video store just disappeared, first person that you loved, last time you used algebra.” Did they peak back then? Sounds like they did.
The album takes a heartbreaking turn with the third track called “Long Time,” where Yassein and Glover emulate a phone call between two high school sweethearts that have broken up, but Glover’s character still hasn’t moved on. “Four years, how you wanna play this?” It’s been a while since they have spoken to one another but whenever they do it feels like they were the same “two kids lying in the basement.” While there is a lot of reminiscing, Glover knows that she has to bring herself back to the present, even though it’s emotionally painful. “I gotta get along with life, but you still run my mind.”
Did you think you were done being heartbroken? Think again, because two tracks later it’s “Amsterdam,” which “is the retelling of a friend’s breakup, who had big plans to move to Europe to be with her long-distance boyfriend,” said Yassein, in an interview with Music For The Misfits.
There’s no denying that Wild Rivers has their own sound. When it comes to indie/folk they have the textbook slide guitar in the background to give a dreamy feel, yet they’re not afraid to use pad presets of synthesizers (pads being background chords that ring out), filling the space and giving a softer feel to the song itself.
It almost seems like the entire album is a road trip of sorts, looking at life flash past you through the side windows like Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway,” only a little softer. The sixth track “Weatherman” successfully reproduces this feeling with lyrics like “Rolling down the window of the driver’s seat, looking for a place to breathe, knowing where I’m at and where I’m meant to be, trying to close the space between.” Being one of the more upbeat songs, the moral behind it has a more positive undertone than the other songs: be present and “look around, you’re missing all the good stuff.”
Perfect to put on while taking a trip down memory lane with an old photo album of your youth, or just during some down time.
Score: 8/10
Trial Track: Amsterdam
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