REVIEW: City And Colour - Little Hell

City And Colour
Little Hell
(Vagrant)
(out of 5)

Well, we are in a new decade and it seems ‘emo’ has had its day (for now). Following this, it is not surprising that City & Colour aka Dallas Green has moved back in time (sort of), taking a page from Ryan Adams' book and sliding into those truly time-tested genres of country/folk/rock. He does it well, and with a full band behind him Little Hell is a tight collection of songs which cut right to the heart of things. And boy, can it get heavy.

Where ‘We Found Each Other in the Dark’ speaks of passing “through the black soulless water/and the cold lonely air”, ‘Natural Disaster’ takes the sadness to a wider context, noting the tragedy that is the world at large (“whether a natural disaster ripped it from its foundation/or an economic tragedy tore apart its family/they're all empty”). In ‘The Grand Optimist’, Green bemoans the “complications due to things left undone”, with the heart-tearing refrain “I guess I take after my mother”. Family ties run deep, in fact they may be the deepest things in life itself. 

This familial connection is continued in ‘O, Sister’ as he watches the downward spiral and complete destruction of a girl that is close to him (“what have the demons done?/with the luminous light once shined from your eyes?”, “what is eating at your soul?/is it the whispering ghosts that left you out in the cold?”). I have experienced this myself with a couple of girls already this year; it’s merciless, heartbreaking; the worst thing is there is nothing you can do about it.

Green is well known for his haunting voice-of-silk, and this comes to a fore in the title track, which details his struggles with relating to a girl due to the ghosts of his past (“there's a degree of difficulty in dealing with me/from my haunted past comes a daunting task of living through memories”).  His girl is no better either – “lost in the dark/she's got a heavy heart (and daddy issues, probably)” (‘Fragile Bird’). She is “all four seasons/rolled into one” and he is “the jet black sky/just before the rain” – a pairing as unpredictable as the weather (‘Northern Wind’).

‘Weightless’ describes female deception (“because it’s your eyes I don’t believe/and my heart, I know, you will deceive”) and ‘Sorrowing Man’ is pretty self explanatory (“oh, how you have lost your way”).

Though the song writing is wholly (and brilliantly) depressing most of the time, Little Hell finishes with the appropriately titled ‘Hope For Now’, which is what the record needed, Green needs, as do I, you, and everybody else out there. “what if I could sing just one song and it might save somebody's life?”

City and Colour - Fragile Bird


Written by Theo Sangster