Alongside The Guillemots and The Dodo's, Woodpigeon are another band to take to the wings with splendid songs and a lot less twitter twitter, cheap cheap or warble warble (after Iver Cutler). What of The Cranes, anyone? Stacking a mille feuille of Elliott Smith tones alongside a breezy Crowded House rhythmic ease, Woodpigeon douse the bucolic first impressions of rusticity as an alt-folk mien is furrowed with a Sufjan Stevens-esque verve and an Eels quirkiness.
An 8-piece band of erudite sophisti-cats fronted by Mark Hamilton who's a strong-lyricist with an eye for mood and personal histories, Hamilton left Edinburgh to return to Canada and conceive 'Treasury Library Canada' coloured by a search for 'home', yet there's a sense of why change your home-strip when it's a winning jersey? Their debut release, 'Songbook', featured a brass garnering and Arcade Fire comparisons from some quarters amid a whisper of cutesiness, yet there has to be marked respect for those who go the distance on a song-title as Woodpigeon do with one's that read like short-stories - 'Home As A Romanticized Concept Where Everyone Loves You Always And Forever' from 'Songbook' as a case in point.
On 'Treasury Library Canada' the brass is abated and the impression of romance is immediate with the hazy reverie and rippling waters of 'Knock Knock' only sullied by a heavy hand on the drums, while there's the shifting seasons as a reference with a Neil Young-ish alt-country tune married to marching snare on the wittily titled 'In The Battle Of Sun vs. Curtains, Sun Loses And We Sleep Until Noon', and a kinda Crowded House lilt spars on 'Cities Of Weather' and 'Emma et Hampus'. 'Bad News Brown' shows an Elliott Smith craft and dryness of humour - "...I don't fall easily, it seems I know, bugger all...", while the ironically named 'The Hamilton Academicals' of the South Lanarkshire footie club has a Celtic violin sidle alongside orchestral strains and a sense of time and distance between friends, Hamilton singing romantically "...800 and 50 miles, borders of wood and wire, just counting the bathroom tiles, seein' faces through those smiles...". The chirpy 'Love In The Time Of Hopscotch' is brimful of pop and cadence as Eels-like keys fuse with violin and a Stevie Nicks-like duet, Hamilton singing - "...take your time it's on the milk-run, I'm just being a tease...".
'I Live A Lot Of Places' shows an alchemical fusing of ideas and genres where a Balkan violin melody is usurped by an Appalachian rover à la Death Vessel with meltdown choral co-minglings, while there's the scent of coyote crazy wisdom about 'Piano Pieces For Adult Beginners' as Eels-like keys joust with a Sufjan Stevens/Flaming Lips hybrid and Hamilton singing "...good things come to those who fake...", and a George Harrison-like air with banjo informs 'A Moment's Peace For Mary Christa O'Keefe'. Meanwhile, 'Anna, Girl In The Clocktower' is a stunning and strident tune, a triumvirate of baroque violin and rhythmic riffs as Hamilton sings - "...the monies gone, the heats run off, I'm all alone..." as though tossing in a dream, and 'Now You Like Me How?' harbours vintage shadings and technical virtuosity as time changes and a spirit elan take on a tale of a screen-play re-write.
Only '7th Fret Over Andres' fails to convince with its' trite verse like a doped Cat Stevens about being a simple guy - "...if I were a diplomat, I could live wherever I put my, hat...". Yet, only a curmudgeonly soul could overlook the generosity of spirit shown in the number of tracks and the quality cashmere dressing of Mark Hamilton's songbook. 'Treasury Library Canada' is less a tour de force, and more of a homely hearth to stoke the fires and cosy on up to.
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