REVIEWED: Rain Over St. Ambrose - "Truth For News"

Written by Dan Nightingale

The newest album from the Halifax via Yartmouth power house pop rockers Rain Over St. Ambrose has dropped - and it's a doozy. As you would expect if you've ever seen the live show, the album is jam packed with strong melodies, rich vocals, and lush keyboards and guitars backing everything up. With all of the musical elements balanced just right, guitar solos and edgy vocals jump out of the mix at just the right moments. Tracks like 'Your Audience' exemplify the excellent compositional skills of the band, but it's heard all across the album.

As is the often lamented case with so many great bands, it's hard to describe exactly what makes this album so great, besides 'it just sounds good;' but that's a cop-out for an album review, so consider this: The drums are great and sound great. The bass is great and it sounds great. The band's backing vocals dance around the edge of the mix while front man Cory Le Blanc belts out heartfelt lyric after heartfelt lyric, before not-too-long guitar solos take over to keep you entertained. There's literally no downside to this album, assuming that you like music. There's an air of 90's rock but no one is going to hold that against a band that undeniably appeals to so many listeners.

Truth For News is a rare example of an album that's accessible enough to appeal to a huge audience and creative and fresh enough to allow cynical music writers to admit, 'yeah, this is pretty great.' You can't really put your finger on it but you can sit back and enjoy the music guilt free, and you can share it with your friends and family and say “I know these guys, and they're probably going to be huge someday.”

Check out this video from Rain Over St. Ambrose's performance last weekend at Nova Scotia Music Week, and see them TONIGHT live at The Seahorse for their CD launch party w/ Like A Motorcycle & Jessie Brown!