Canyon - Insound Tour Support EP
(Insound)
The quality of the Insound Tour Support Series thus far has been, for the most part, fairly poor. The selection of bands has been stellar, but the quality of material submitted by those bands has been consistently below average.
The Canyon EP is no different as it contains two songs not good enough to make it on their already uneven self-titled debut album, two 8-track acoustic demos, and a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Used Cars." As such, all songs but the lead-off track focus more on Canyon's folk ballad side and less on their psychedelic, soundscape side, which is a disappointment because their ballad, or singer-songwriter, songs are usually their worst as they are not very interesting lyricists or singers.
The non-ballad track is okay but nothing special. It falters a little bit by being overly retro, with a boogie-oogie 70s keyboard section. When the keyboard falls out, the song gets a lot darker and a lot more interesting sonically, the guitar creating a buzzing, moaning sound that really sets a mood.
The Springsteen cover, "Used Cars" from Nebraska, is pretty faithful to the original, and it's obvious from the rendition that the band truly is a fan of the music. However, the lack of strength from the vocalist makes the song come off weak, the emotion of the song lost by the singer's inability to overpower the bare acoustic guitar he accompanies. The other three ballads are little different and, obviously, work from less strong material.
Even if you loved the Canyon album, this EP still isn't really worth the money. The only reason to buy this EP is if you happen to see the band live, and they look like they could really, really use a couple extra Extra Value meals.
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