Mended With Gold
This tight Toronto-based trio know how to assemble anthems. Moving from softly strummed acoustic guitars to full-throated frenzy in the snap of snare—with special credit going to breakneck drummer Paul Banwatt—the band are a dynamic powerhouse with songs that are emotionally raw and direct. They have other speeds (as heard in the melodic folk of “To Be Scared”), but *Mended with Gold* plays to the band’s strengths by delivering one soaring chorus after another, much like on their previous two releases. They follow a musical formula, then transcend it with sincerity and intensity.
The Rural Alberta Advantage's third album doubles down on their secret weapon—drummer Paul Banwatt—and it is, by a wide margin, their boldest and most ambitiously recorded album.
The Toronto trio return with another record of folk-tinged indie rock that pairs intelligence with energy.
The Rural Alberta Advantage’s songwriter Nils Edenloff has likely seen Moulin Rouge (who hasn’t?), but you wouldn’t know it…
The third studio album from the big-hearted Canadian indie rock trio, the Saddle Creek-issued Mended with Gold mines the same sonic and emotional terrain as its 2011 Polaris Prize-nominated predecessor, but there's an electricity that runs through the set that suggests the kind of band tightening that can only occur through heavy touring and workshopping.
The Rural Alberta Advantage are best seen live, where their acoustic crescendos and Nils Edenloff's Jeff Mangum-esque vocal acrobatics impress most.