Like any great band, Canadians draw on a variety on influences to create their music. There’s early Death Cab in there, Weezer and The Beach Boys, leading to a sound that often sounds like The Smashing Pumpkins.

Seeing as how Canadians (the band), reign from Verona, Italy, perhaps “Italians” would have been a more fitting name. However, and perhaps I am naive, Italy has been known for a lot of brilliant things, but never for rock music.

That could change soon, however, as Canadians’ recent debut album, “A Sky with No Stars,” gains more and more acclaim in indie circles. A five-piece band whose members all had prior band experience, Canadians formed in 2005.

An essential Canadians fun fact: bassist Massimo Florio, who also happens to be a blogstar in Italy, is the co-author of a bestselling Italian book “I Fermenti lattice dello yogurt di Chuck Norris sono tutti morti,” which sums up all the satirical jokes and facts regarding Chuck Norris. This is no joke.

Canadians released their self-titled debut in 2005, and gained most of their notoriety via blogs and webzines. Because of the debut, Canadians became the first Italian band ever to get a review in NME’s Breaking Band column.

Like any great band, Canadians draw on a variety on influences to create their music. There’s early Death Cab in there, Weezer and The Beach Boys, leading to a sound that often sounds like The Smashing Pumpkins. Their jingly-jangly pop songs sound especially fresh in this era of commercial rap, emo and un-cool R&B.

The guitars are classic ’90s-sounding, while many of the verses hark back to the ’60s, leaving the listener with a sort of best-of-both-worlds situation.

Beginning with the title track that follows a classic loud-quiet-loud template, satisfaction is almost instant. Track three, “Summer Teenage Girl,” is the most melodic track on the album and displays the group’s skills as harmony singers, which is unfortunately becoming more and more a thing of the past in today’s music scene.

“Out of Order” maintains a fairly relaxed rhythm throughout before exploding into a louder climax in the last minute of the song. “Love Story on the Moon,” is perhaps the catchiest track on the album, and while a fairly generic song, it never fails to impress.

Much of what has been written about Canadians has been in Italian, making for difficult reading, but isn’t that what Google is for? Even Amazon only has the album as an import; however, it is available in MP3 format on Amazon.

“A Sky with No Stars” does not contain anything that has never been heard or written before. It does, however, use the sounds and tricks of the past to create a well-rounded and catchy album. Another album like this and perhaps Italy will begin to make a mark on the rock scene.

> Comments