Livingston

Opening with a wordy, mid-tempo tune about Alberta, this concept record made by Livingston (which is kind of a collaboration between many people, mostly folklorist/song collector Dr. Henry Adam Svec and Czech programmer Mirek Plihal, but is also a machine that can access all of Canadian folk music to make the perfect CanFolk recording) is pretty okay. Maybe if Livingston didn’t spend all this time focusing on a silly explanation, the musicians could have actually made a full length instead of this seven song EP. Mostly low-key, there are a few uppers in “S/He Is Like the Angry Birds” and “Take It Easy but Take It to the Limit” the latter being an Eagles song with the intro from another Eagles song, which isn’t as clever as it is annoying. Mostly it’s a Ron Sexsmith b-sides collection that Bob Rock would shrug at and say “Alright, well.”

Published in Volume 68, Number 24 of The Uniter (March 19, 2014)

Related Reads