Continuing with Listen In’s coverage of the best albums of the year, ScooterDMan and I are examining our number four picks. Like yesterday, his response to my selection appears in green after my description of the album.

4. The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour

Musically, The Weakerthans’ fourth full length, Reunion Tour, is incredibly straightforward and steady. Like all of their past releases this record doesn’t rely on virtuosity or clever turns of riff. Instead, the uncomplicated picking and easily played chords provide a backdrop for the simple brilliance of frontman John K. Samson’s lyrical poetry. Samson’s heart-wrenching, touching writing and delivery carry Reunion Tour through its eleven tracks and serve as an homage to the universal thread that ties us all together, no matter our age, class, or country. Each song is told by a different narrator and from the bus driver trying to simply get through a day without thinking of his lost love to the businessman whose business has just taken a terrible tumble or the suburbanite dealing with idea that the best days are all behind and dreams are all but out of reach Samson beautifully outlines the humanity behind each societally built facade.

The multitude of narrators on the album bring with them a variety in the ways their stories are told. The easy rock of “Tournament of Hearts” precedes the elegiac balladeering of “Virtue the Cat Explains Her Departure” while the laid back alt. country-tinged “Sun in an Empty Room” flows smoothly into the pretty pop of first single “Night Windows”. Whether mournfully detailing the thoughts of a Bigfoot tracker, or eulogizing a Canadian hockey player the Weakerthans skillfully and convincingly paint pictures of the fragility of human happiness. After four albums this ability to make everymen out of everyone is somewhat of their trademark and Reunion Tour reminds listeners that not only is it what they do best, nobody else does it better.<br>

ScooterDMan’s take: “For me, Reunion Tour is one of the Weakerthans strongest efforts in years. Whereas their last album, Reconstruction Site, bore an almost uncomfortable resemblance musically to the album that preceded it (Left and Leaving), here, John K. Samson and Co. live outside of the predictable chord progressions that diminished the impact of those albums and in doing so, pave new musical territory here. As Eric says above, the Weakerthans are not going to are rarely going to break any new ground instrumentally. If the Weakerthans were a sandwich, the band would be the bread and Samson the meat. For me, this album really begins to pick up steam at track 5, the spoken word “Elegy For Gump Worsley.” From there, listeners are treated to five of the band’s best recorded tracks, including the touching “Bigfoot,” whose horn section ushers in the tearful conclusion of the tiny song. Also, not to be overlooked is the devastatingly sad sequel to 2003’s “Plea From a Cat Named Virtute.” Here, the cat returns, only to discover that it can’t remember its own name and therefore cannot find its owner.”

Find my original review of this record here.

The Top Ten So Far:

5. Menomena - Friend or Foe

6. The Narrator - All That to the Wall
7. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
8. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
9. The Forms - The Forms
10. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

Check back in each day this week to hear our picks for the best albums of the year.

Check out my full review of the album here.

Eric Atienza 2007 for Listen In. Some rights reserved.

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