Canadian collective The Gertrudes aren’t so much a band as a club. Not content to be a quintet or even an octet, they’re an all-singing, all dancing duodecad. Well, maybe they don’t all dance, but they do play instruments. Lots of instruments, in fact, including trombone, mandolin, banjo, violin, cello and theramin.
And yet for all that... well, it’s hard to get excited about this, their fourth album release. ‘Dreams’ is a slightly schmaltzy piece of standard country fare, and after the upbeat flurry of the lively and spirited opener, ‘Derby Girl’, there’s a lot of mid to slow tempo numbers that drags the album back and I found my interest dissipating fast. Pity, as I’d hoped for more vibe from a band that listed ‘spectral processing’ as one of its instruments.
The Gertrudes Online
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