Cowboy Junkies Such Ferocious Beauty LP (Translucent Green Vinyl)

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the September 2023 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Such Ferocious Beauty is vintage Cowboy Junkies and another dimension from the lo-fi Canadian band comprised of, well, family.

Written between the long isolating summer of 2020 and 2021, Michael Timmins would take leave of his family, travel to a cottage to focus on writing, armed with books from D.H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman, David Whyte, the Bible, The Odyssey and a desire to make sense of this phase of his life.

While these ten songs serve as aural Rorschach takes on emotions, life, even fate, an unspoken common ground unites them. From the haunted blues of "Hell Is Real" to the languishing meander of "Knives Are Drawn," both delivered from singer to the listener, observing, cautioning, drawing back the curtain. They eventually come down to the same place: the individual and looking out into the world, asking, "How do I fit into this? How do I keep my humanity?"

...these ten songs are open in their contemplation of death and its aftermath, the gnawing sense of loss, the anger and confusion brought on after losing a loved one, and the not-always-comforting contemplation of the afterlife. The group's traditionally languid sound is punctuated with occasional peals of feedback and noise from Michael's guitar, as well as the more traditionally melancholy report of the violin, and there's an edge in the sweet, smoky tone of Margo's voice that matches the more difficult mood of the lyrics....Fans who have developed a taste for the sweet sadness of the Cowboy Junkies' best work may find Such Ferocious Beauty a bit strong and confrontational for their taste, but that's very much the point of this music; this isn't rooted in solace, but in exorcising the demons that come from losing loved ones, and it's a difficult but eloquent act of public mourning.

The Cowboy Junkies don't stray far from their winning formula, a riveting mix of country, folk, blues, and indie-rock, with Margo's languid vocals floating above a cloud of Michael's atmospheric guitar to create a mood that is as bleak as titles like 'Hard to Build, Easy to Break,' 'Flood,' 'Knives' and 'Mike Tyson (Here It Comes)' suggest.