Album Review: Dylan LeBlanc - Cast The Same Old Shadow

Some musicians are made to fill dance floors; some are made to inspire headbanging of the most violent variety, and some are made to get busy – and I mean bus-ayyyyy – to. Dylan LeBlanc is none of these. Aside from having an excellent first name (OK, you may not agree, but myself and old mate Bob sure do), he is a wordsmith; a softly-sung young man with the world at his feet. But he is not a banger; he is not a metalhead, and throughout Cast The Same Old Shadow, it's hard to tell just how bus-ayyyyy Mr LeBlanc gets in his spare time.

Cast The Same Old Shadow picks up exactly where LeBlanc's debut release, 2010's Pauper Fields, left off. Soft, subtle songs traverse aural prairies, channelling the country styling of Neil Young (Brother) and Justin Townes Earle (Diamonds And Pearls) and lonely city streets through shoegaze pop reminiscent of The Besnard Lakes (Innocent Sinner). LeBlanc never rushes, giving his band plenty of time to ebb and flow their arrangements throughout each song, all the while displaying a subtlety and poise that belies his meagre 23 years.

Yes, 23 years old. Writing lyrics like “May I step in/Where the loneliness is/And dance with thee to the Lonesome Waltz” (Lonesome Waltz) when I was 23 was a goal more distant than the sun, and once again shows why this Dylan, like Bob Dylan, Dylan Thomas, Dylan Moran and, gulp, Dylan McDermott, before him, will be remembered long after his 24^th birthday.