Arkells Show Another Side With Brand New, Intimate Album, Laundry Pile
For a band that’s been dedicated to giving their fans the ultimate live experience, combined with a series of albums seemingly engineered to fuel your next cross-Canada road trip for over 15 years now, it’s rather amazing to see just how well Arkells were able to transition to the far more intimate and deeply personal Laundry Pile.
Laundry Pile’s strong emphasis on pure and honest ballads wonderfully maintains the carefully crafted pop lyricism Arkells fans have come to deeply adore. Even though it is very clearly chronicling the messiness of love lost and the long, drawn out grieving process that follows, every single track is instantly singable, making the record quite romantic in its unique love language. Tracks like title track and first single, “Laundry Pile,” and album cuts “Your Name”, “Shot in the Dark” and “Tango Waltz”, are beautifully mournful and give validation to the seemingly negative emotions that accompany grieving; while “Skin” provides Arkells with their newest Rally anthem while still exploring what it means to mourn.
In addition to the stunning shift to a slower style from the Hamilton-proud quintet, this listener was also delighted to hear Arkells retain a growing pattern of a distinctive vintage sound quality to their composition that I’ve always appreciated. To add to their track record of influencing 60’s-inspired hooks and deep love for soul and Motown into their compositions, so many tracks from Laundry Pile continue to lift from a deep appreciation of classic pop-rock. Album opener, “Life Is”, feels like the perfect combination of the most celebrated Leonard Cohen alongside the tender vocals of the Righteous Brothers and Everly Brothers, while “Wash Away,” doesn’t feel too far off from classic Beach Boys, and the careful hints of country in “Time” feels it would fit perfectly in a tribute to the Band’s The Last Waltz.
The romantically heartbreaking Laundry Pile will definitely leave its mark on Arkells fans, and one can only hope that an album as delicate and adventurous as this will take these new legends of Canadian pop-rock to new heights!