Amazon.co.uk Review
In the three years between
Open and their previous studio release--the slightly over-produced but nevertheless compelling
Miles from Our Home--Cowboy Junkies have done some conspicuous clearing of their cupboards. There was the odds-and-sods compilation
Rarities, B-Sides and Slow, Sad Waltzes and a live album,
200 More Miles. Such behaviour is characteristic of a band in the throes of reinvention, and
Open serves to confirm this suspicion. Unfortunately, Cowboy Junkies have embarked on this change in course with the wrong map--basically, they have retained the studio bombast that marred
Miles from Our Home and abandoned the choruses that just about redeemed it. Throughout
Open, Margo Timmins' glorious voice is wasted on a series of songs that rely rather too hopefully on the ability of an interminable guitar solo to compensate for an absence of melody. The lovely, mournful "Bread & Wine" at least suggests that they haven't quite forgotten what made them great, but there is no argument here for not listening to
Trinity Session or
The Caution Horses instead.
--Andrew Mueller
CD Description
You've got to hand it to the Cowboy Junkies for hanging in there as long as they have. For a band who arguably reached their commercial peak in 1988 with the seminal TRINITY SESSIONS, they've shown an impressive degree of fortitude, continually refining their sound, album after album. Showing the empathy for sonic Americana that made fellow Canadians like the Band into roots-rock heroes, the Junkies built their reputation on dreamy, soft-focus folk-rock with country overtones. Fifteen years after they began, OPEN finds the group in aplace similar to where they started from, but just different enough to justify the long, hard road they've traveled.
Gentle slices of deftly observed rootsiness are still the order of the day, but the fog lifts often enough to let some mid-tempo tunes with moderately biting guitar and forceful feel disrupt the languor. Most importantly, singer Margo Timmins still comes off like a cross between Sandy Denny and a less-Teutonic Nico; striking just the right balance between distance and emotion seems to be a consistent factor in the Cowboy Junkies sound.