Album Review: City & Colour - If I Should Go Before You

Dallas Green's rebirth from raucous post-hardcore band guitarist into warbling, mysterious bluesman is something that needs to be heard to believed. From album to album — he's now on his fifth — Green has become a more confident troubadour, his voice aching for days past in Killing Time, rejoicing his connection for the land in Americana-driven Runaway (despite his Canadian roots) and pining for his lost heart in Lover Come Back.

If I Should Go Before You feels more of a band effort than his previous records: you're getting a fuller sound and more warmth here, pedal steel swells aplenty, though it's somehow part and parcel that you get more grittiness, too. Nine-minute lead single Woman is a great example of this — you can almost feel the desert sun beating down on your perspiring neck, the dust swirling around your feet as you head to your car, dazed, to get your lady back. Green's voice sounds better than ever, encompassing a tone that's hard to forget and easy to get sucked into.

The album also clutches at more blues-rock sensibilities, optimistic but with a hint of wistfulness, rather than the solemn country flavour 2013's The Hurry And The Harm brought to our lips. There's a dirty blues club solo paired with a groovy li'l bassline in Mizzy C, while balladic Map Of The World offers a jauntiness that's refreshing to hear from Green.

Green is continuously honing his craft and the maturity shows. If they aren't already, City & Colour are fast becomes a blues rock mainstay.