Download not available
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/Qobuz

The Canadian quartet led by Margo Timmins, her two brothers Michael and Peter and Alan Anton have emerged from six years of hibernation. Active since the mid-1980s on the folk stage, offering up an alternative kind of country with a fair bit of rock, the Cowboy Junkies have always been able to set themselves apart, be it with the quality of their recordings, using an ambisonic microphone; or for their mix of influences from jazz, blues and country. Everything is carefully calculated, like the release of i>All That Reckoning in Proper Records, which also marks the birthday of their famous album The Trinity Session. It took the Toronto group six years to finish off this project: and that's because there were a few other factors at play, which inspired the lyrics. The members have reached an age that brings with it certain responsibilities. All That Reckoning underlines this evolution, in fatherhood in particular, and in personal and social relations, the fragile state of the world, and various challenges. On rock ballads with something of a psychedelic feel, Margo Timmins's soft and smooth voice can bring her audience in and make them pay close attention. As for Michael, we can only salute his talent as a composer, in particular with the first track, All That Reckoning with its gradual accumulation of instruments and The Possessed which paints a picture of a society in anguish... It's a personal, human album, charged with emotions, and which catches the spirit of the times. © Anna Coluthe/Qobuz

When a band's been making records for as long as the Cowboy Junkies (26 years by the time of Demons' release), it's easy to get stuck in a rut if you don't make a concerted effort to keep things fresh. That's probably at least part of the reason the stalwart Canadian folk-rockers conceived their Nomad Series, whose first volume came out just eight months before the second, Demons. The idea was to release four albums within 18 months, each of which would represent a thinking-outside-the-box approach to music making for the band. "Renmin Park" was inspired by guitarist/songwriter Michael Timmins' stay in China, and includes covers of songs by Chinese artists, as well as original Chinese-inspired work. Demons brings things closer to home, and is basically a tribute album to singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt, who died in late 2009. The Cowboy Junkies cover tunes from all across Chesnutt's career, from early nuggets like "West of Rome" to "Flirted with You All My Life," which hails from the last release of the songsmith's lifetime. Demons presents an alternate universe in which Michael Timmons' songs have mysteriously become considerably more caustic and cutting, or one in which Chesnutt abjured his own creaky-voiced renditions of his material in favor of making the honey-voiced Margo Timmins his mouthpiece. Whichever way you look at it, it's a provocative proposition, and certainly one that requires bringing a fresh pair of ears to the veteran band's output here. At times, the extra grit quotient in Chesnutt's songs seems in turn to inspire a tougher approach on the part of the Junkies, but more often, the late songwriter's quirky, agreeably crooked structures are given a fulsome, flowing quality that would probably never even have occurred to Chesnutt as a possibility.© J. Allen /TiVo