By: David Schultz

More than a decade before bands like Grizzly Bear found an audience with their calming melodies, the Cowboy Junkies were oozing lo-fi cool, drifting their way through emotionally wrought ballads sung in a haunting voice by Margo Timmins. For those who left off paying attention to the Junkies after the wave of success over The Trinity Sessions ebbed will be pleasantly surprised by their latest release, At The End Of Paths Taken. Adopting a comparatively quicker pace, bassist Alan Anton (Earvolution interview here) and the Timmins' brothers, Michael on guitar (Earvolution interview here) and Peter on drums, remove the focus from Margo Timmins' still-smoldering voice.

That this isn't the same old Junkies becomes clear on the opening track, "Brand New World," which finishes with a string-based groovy jam so upbeat it could constitute a hardcore pace in Junkie-ville. They repeat the formula with fine success on "Follower 2," letting the orchestral strings form the heart of the song, rather than relegate them to the background. The Canadian quartet haven't abandoned their softly rendered tunes, they have broadened the scope of what they will do with them though with Michael Timmins' distorted guitar giving "Cutting Board Blues" a nice aura.

If the music has developed a little edginess so have the vocals, even if the focus of the album centers on family. Still the chanteuse, Margo Timmins' voice still has a lingering quality but now has a slightly sassy attitude. In closing the album with "My Only Guarantee," Timmins burns a harrowing message with cheeky style, working an ode to the dysfunctional family with such subtlety that she may tangentially put the fear of God into the mind of any paranoid suitor.

Labels: Cowboy Junkies