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Product Description
Review
In much the same way that Chris Carrabba’s Dashboard Confessional solo side-project soon overshadowed his day-job band Further Seems Forever a decade ago, Dallas Green’s City and Colour puts Alexisonfire into the shade with ease. It’s a curious phenomenon because Green represents the beautiful, honey-soaked vocal alternative to George Pettit – the gruff main vocalist of Alexisonfire. You’d be forgiven for thinking Green might be trying to look unreasonably sexy by standing next to the ugliest person in the room, but he really does have an outstanding and truly distinctive voice.
Moving on from 2008’s folky Bring Me Your Love, there’s a melancholic and bluesy vibe to be found on Little Hell, and this occasionally descends into southern, country-tinged gospel tones. Neil Young is a decent reference point in both style and substance, and while there are many moments where it appears that Green is simply moaning, his brave, bucolic voice shines through. We Found Each Other in the Dark opens the album with sad country guitars – it’s a love song, but the lyrics only barely give this away, such is the consistently lamenting nature of Green’s vocals.
Silver and Gold is a gentle acoustic journey through another poignant and painful experience. He’s a troubled gentleman and tells a story with a sincerity and fluency that is truly masterful. His lyrics may tackle situations that seem as personal and difficult as can be, but the sense that the listener will always be able to relate to them remains constant. Whether we want our stars to be so easily relatable is another question, though, and how true these stories are is never clear.
In Alexisonfire, Green acts as a comforting foil to the aggressive hardcore elements of the band; but there is nothing to counterbalance his syrupy goodness here. While the songwriting is as subtle as it is persuasively catchy and constantly morose, some added variety and bite in delivery would certainly help. The songs vary very little in length, while only the quaint Fragile Bird and curiously swaying Natural Disaster can be described as up-tempo. As it stands, Green has moved forward – or at least sideways – with each of his three City and Colour albums. But all in all, it’s difficult to call Little Hell anything much more than nice.
--Raziq Rauf
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CD Description
Dallas Green will be releasing his 3rd solo album as a singer-songwriter under the moniker CITY AND COLOUR on Cooking Vinyl. The album titled Little Hell is scheduled for release on June 6th, 2011 and is the highly anticipated follow-up to the 2008 s Bring Me Your Love, which was certified platinum in Canada. Alternately sparse and inviting, intense and delicate, Little Hell shows music fans another side of Green s incredible songwriting skills, and features some of his finest songs to date. Little Hell was recorded earlier this winter at Catherine North Studios in Hamilton, ON with producer/engineer/mixer Alex Newport (At The Drive-In, Mars Volta, Death Cab For Cutie). Fans got a sneak preview of a brand new track from the upcoming album when an alternate version of the song titled Northern Wind recently made its debut on a special Valentine s Day episode of the hit series One Tree Hill. Green performed on the episode as part of the show s story line. Little Hell named after the album s title track, a song that explores the little heavens and little hells that comprise a relationship is the first of Green s albums to be recorded and mixed to tape. This sonic move ultimately resulted in the album s warm immediacy, allowing the songs to take on spaciousness previously unheard in City and Colour albums. The record allows Green to highlight all of the facets of his songwriting, from Blues-tinged rockers to pedal steel-soaked acoustic gems. Songs like Northern Wind have a beautiful intimacy, as if Green is in the same room and singing right to you, while Sorrowing Man is dark and brooding, anchored by an ominous organ in the chorus. The record also highlights Green s impressive vocal range, from driving a full band on the rousing chorus of Natural Disasters or sighing mellifluously on opener We Found Each Other in the Dark.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Dallas Green returns with his 3rd album from City and Colour. The album is a lot different from his previous albums Sometimes and Bring Me Your Love but still equally just as heart-felt and awesome!
Little Hell has all the great characteristics of the last two City and Colour albums and still brings a new sound aswell.
Fragile Bird, the single taken from the album, is a more soft electric based song that usual City and Colour straight acoustic songs but is in no way a weak song. This song has heart with a catchy beat throughout it aswell as Dallas's outstanding Lyrics and Vocals.
In my opinion the whole album is a great progression to an already great band's catalogue.
Songs to especially look out for are O Sister, Silver and Gold and Northern Wind.
If you listen to City and Colour already this is a must and if you haven't heard them before I'd say give it a listen. It's amazing how much you can fall in love with Dallas's music.
This is the first review I have ever written on Amazon.co.uk but I enjoyed them album so much thought I'd big it up a bit.
Little Hell has all the great characteristics of the last two City and Colour albums and still brings a new sound aswell.
Fragile Bird, the single taken from the album, is a more soft electric based song that usual City and Colour straight acoustic songs but is in no way a weak song. This song has heart with a catchy beat throughout it aswell as Dallas's outstanding Lyrics and Vocals.
In my opinion the whole album is a great progression to an already great band's catalogue.
Songs to especially look out for are O Sister, Silver and Gold and Northern Wind.
If you listen to City and Colour already this is a must and if you haven't heard them before I'd say give it a listen. It's amazing how much you can fall in love with Dallas's music.
This is the first review I have ever written on Amazon.co.uk but I enjoyed them album so much thought I'd big it up a bit.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This album is a real treasure ! Beautiful lyrics. The voice of Dallas Green (aka City & Colour)is "insane". Moreover this canadian guitarist-singer is only 31 ! Far from his Alexisionfire style. A melodic line escaped straight from heaven - acoustic guitar and voice -. To tell u the truth, since I got the cd I just can't stop listening to it -over and over- ! 3rd album - gotta check the previous ones - !
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Dallas Green continues on his new album "Little Hell" to emphasise the "Yin and Yang" between his solo work with its huge debt to fellow Canadian Neil Young quieter moments and that of his often ferociously noisy post hardcore band Alexisonfire. This is the third album Green has released under the "City and Colour" moniker and it allows him to draw out those moments in Alexisonfire songs like "Born and Raised" where his genuinely melodic vocals act as a counterpoint to George Petits "raw shouty" approach. It increasingly begs the question whether Green is doing an "Elliot Smith"? You will recall that the later was one of the mainstays of the band Heatmiser when his own more important, if brief, solo career took off. Alexisonfire are a good band even though they do often sound a tad "nu metal" but Dallas Green seems to be transcending the group and "Little Hell" is his finest work to date.
Green's pop sensibilities are all over this album kicking off with the lovely countryish ballad "We found each other in the dark" which is about as far from Alexisonfire music as it can be. On the second track "Natural disaster" the debt is to singers like Andrew Bird is clear with a nice acoustics combining alongside a deceptively simple melody which grows upon each listen. The song "Fragile Bird" is a true standout and check out the music blogs and you will find that it has been remixed in a variety of styles including dubstep and is a fine piece of songwriting This reviewers favourite is the double pairing of the plaintive "Northern Wind" with the equally dark "Oh sister" where Green is able to demonstrate his great singing voice and a growing maturity in songwriting. Where influences are more obvious doesn't detract from a good tune, thus "Weightless" has shades of Crazy Horse in terms of guitar work but the melodic lines are far lighter and soulful. Finally the last track "Hope for now" starts out almost angelic but mutates into a dirty blues guitar squall half way through and is possibly the nearest you will get to a Alexisonfire song on the album.
"Little Hell" is jam-packed with great songs like the "Great Optimist" which many solo artists would contact the Landlord of hell to have written. If this album has a problem its sometimes a bit too heartfelt and angst ridden, similarly it lacks the depth and variety that can be found on Bon Iver's recent album which suggest that Green still has dues to pay. In this sense Green has a decision to take whether he can keep wearing both hats of being a band member and a solo artist or whether he puts all his energies into a single endeavour. The quality of the music on "Little Hell" suggests that he has much more to give and a flair for songwriting into which he should pour his heart and soul. They say that the devil has the best tunes and "Little Hell" is fine piece of supporting evidence.
Green's pop sensibilities are all over this album kicking off with the lovely countryish ballad "We found each other in the dark" which is about as far from Alexisonfire music as it can be. On the second track "Natural disaster" the debt is to singers like Andrew Bird is clear with a nice acoustics combining alongside a deceptively simple melody which grows upon each listen. The song "Fragile Bird" is a true standout and check out the music blogs and you will find that it has been remixed in a variety of styles including dubstep and is a fine piece of songwriting This reviewers favourite is the double pairing of the plaintive "Northern Wind" with the equally dark "Oh sister" where Green is able to demonstrate his great singing voice and a growing maturity in songwriting. Where influences are more obvious doesn't detract from a good tune, thus "Weightless" has shades of Crazy Horse in terms of guitar work but the melodic lines are far lighter and soulful. Finally the last track "Hope for now" starts out almost angelic but mutates into a dirty blues guitar squall half way through and is possibly the nearest you will get to a Alexisonfire song on the album.
"Little Hell" is jam-packed with great songs like the "Great Optimist" which many solo artists would contact the Landlord of hell to have written. If this album has a problem its sometimes a bit too heartfelt and angst ridden, similarly it lacks the depth and variety that can be found on Bon Iver's recent album which suggest that Green still has dues to pay. In this sense Green has a decision to take whether he can keep wearing both hats of being a band member and a solo artist or whether he puts all his energies into a single endeavour. The quality of the music on "Little Hell" suggests that he has much more to give and a flair for songwriting into which he should pour his heart and soul. They say that the devil has the best tunes and "Little Hell" is fine piece of supporting evidence.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Love city and colour
If you love chilled out music then buy this CD.The lyrics are beautiful and its sung by an amazing man with a wonderful voice. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Leah
Amazing!
I never write reviews but I really wanted to say something about Little Hell. It's an amazing album .... Amazing. I know that some people don't like it... Read more
Published 4 months ago by JanRen1992
Just WOW
had the CD since it came out but thought i would write a review now
one of my friends (a fan of the first 2 albums) said it was too much of a change for him. Read more
one of my friends (a fan of the first 2 albums) said it was too much of a change for him. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Joe Taylor
Awesome!!!!
Been a massive fan of Dallas green since hearing of Alexisonfire, to which his voice over the years has become a massive part of their songs, and due to this appears to have... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Cal
He's done it again!
Though this album is yet another step away from the simple acoustic sounds of Sometimes, Green finds the perfect balance on Little Hell. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Fee273
Love it
Absolutely love city and colour. New album is unreal, even though much of it is quite different to the old stuff. There is still some classic acoustic Dallas on there too. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Emmy
Just yes
So bloody nice, every song is a masterpiece! Loved his last few albums, this one is even better. Makes me wish i had a church with a recording studio in it
Published 11 months ago by N. Swallow
A Slight change but still good
This album is a good album. I received it this morning and am very happy it arrived on release day, so well done amazon. the packaging is cardboard which is really nice. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. G. A. Dowling
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