I blame the digitisation of music, and its push for a singles-oriented market, for the host of bands who have been releasing albums this year that aren’t records in the true sense of the word, but merely a collection of tracks with no unifying purpose, featuring a couple of incredibly catchy singles buffered by mundane filler.
Canyons‘ debut LP, Keep Your Dreams, falls into this category, and while they do have a cohesive sound that is worthy of the dance floor, they fall short of their contemporaries, with banal song writing that does little to project their songs from being 4am booze fuelled party anthems to something that is actually worth remembering.
This is not to say that Keep Your Dreams is an unenjoyable affair. On the contrary, Canyons’ masterful mixing skills makes for some magical moments on the album, and their fantastic production is the saving grace of this release. “My Rescue” is the clear highlight of the record, with its infectious beat, layered arrangements, and emotive vocal delivery. The hypnotic bass on “Blue Snakes” is all encompassing, as is the slow burning build up of “Under A Blue Sky”.
The main problem here is that Cut Copy already made ’80s inspired disco hip back in 2005, and they are a band that have top notch production along with well written, engaging tunes, which is not a strength Canyons appear to possess.
Keep Your Dreams sports a collection of tracks you can dance to, that fail to connect on an emotional level or impress by bringing something new to the table. Canyons aim to make you dance, and they achieve this with no worries, but the overall quality of their arrangements are not remarkable, and they leave me wanting more than the same old uninspired indie clubbing tunes that they’ve released here.
Review Score: 6/10
