The Ottawa-based
Steve Adamyk Band have quietly been crafting quite a résumé of rawly stylish punky, poppy garage rock albums, each delivered with a raucous punch and plenty of hooky tunes. Their 2016 album,
Graceland, is their first to be recorded in Montreal, and it features
Sonic Avenues guitarist Max Desharnais as well as guest vocals from fellow garage punkers
Colleen Green and
Mike Krol. The shift in venues and the new blood seem to have gone a long way toward giving the band a boost. The songs feel a little sharper, the sound a little stronger, and everything seems just a touch more dynamic than usual. Previous albums had a tendency to breeze past on wave after wave of short, fast songs that didn't take time to catch their breath or show much range of emotion. That's not a bad thing, but sometimes a little bit of variation goes a long way. Here, there are plenty of tight, whipcrack rockers to satisfy that part of the equation -- tough-as-leather tracks like "Die Dead Forever," "Lose Control," and "Fallen Off" -- but there are also quite a few that dial back the aggression and speed to deliver a different kind of thrill. The very catchy "Carry On" adds
Green's sweet backing vocals, a soaring chorus, and some nice organ breaks, and comes off sounding like it could be a hit single, their first. "Broken Arms" slows the tempo, keeps
Green and the singalong chorus, and comes close to the kind of miniature epic rocker their labelmates
Exploding Hearts knocked out so effortlessly. The churning "Give It Away" comes close to those lofty heights too, and shows Adamyk getting in touch with a more thoughtful side lyrically. There was nothing really wrong with the band's approach in the past; they could have kept cranking out fun, nasty rock & roll gems until they ran out of juice and few would have squawked. The subtle changes they have made to their m.o. on
Graceland make a world of difference, however, adding some dimension and range to their sound and dishing out some near-classic punk-pop tracks along the way. There are plenty of bands treading these same boards; with this album
the Steve Adamyk Band stake a strong claim that they are one of the best. ~ Tim Sendra