Hometowns by The Rural Alberta Advantage

Though currently based in Toronto, the Rural Alberta Advantage draw upon the Prairie Province heritage of lead singer/songwriter Nils Edenloff for inspiration. The RAA’s sparse, keening style of country-rock (akin to Son Volt, except edgier) provides a sturdy vehicle for Edenloff’s tense, unsettled lyrics. “Sleep All Day,” “The Air” and “Frank, AB” wrap palpable longing within blankets of melancholy, while “The Dethbridge In Lethbridge” and “Luciana” seethe with regret and self-recrimination. If such themes sound a bit heavy, they are leavened by Edenloff’s spiky guitar strokes and Paul Banwatt’s brisk, nicely splashy drum work. Especially tasty is the band’s playing on “Don’t Haunt This Place” (a jittery slice of post-breakup angst) and “Four Night Rider” (matching a galloping tempo with an uplifting lyric). The pastoral, fitfully hopeful “In the Summertime” brings this emotionally conflicted album to a satisfying close. While the RAA’s songs seem rooted in a specific time and place, there’s a universal quality to their tales of bruised love and strangled aspirations.

8.0 / 10

This affecting debut-- an underground hit for months, now out on Saddle Creek-- blends acoustic, nostalgic rock, energetic rhythms, and grand arrangements.

C

The Rural Alberta Advantage begs for Neutral Milk Hotel comparisons—see Paul Banwatt’s nasal shout, or the ubiquitous fuzzed-out acoustic guitar—but they aren’t entirely deserved. That’s certainly no knock: Hometowns, the band’s just-reissued 2008 album, is a well-crafted bit of folk that needn’t stand on the…

With a name like the Rural Alberta Advantage and a debut album called Hometowns, one would hope for an unpretentious collection of amiable indie pop tunes filtered through the wistful lens of a Wes Anderson film, and that's exactly what you get.

6 / 10

When the Rural Alberta Advantage first released Hometowns on their own in 2008, it sure took off in a hurry.

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