Rural Alberta Advantage | "Departing" | Album Review

Story by Jacob Zlomke 

| Published Mar 15, 2011

The Rural Alberta Advantage have moved out of rural Canada for the latest effort, Departing. Other than that, though, the RAA have remained largely the same between 2009’s Hometowns and March 2011’s release. But this may prove problematic.

On Hometowns, the RAA charms its audience with a small-town, plains-y grit that did well in conjunction with the album’s less-than-Gaga production quality. The small band (three members) fit their sound, fit their name, fit their style, and vice-versa.

Now, take out the raw acoustic guitar and replace it with similar riffs but a sound lacking nearly as much edge, add in a little more keyboard and drums that don’t sound like they’re peaking the microphone. What you end up with is radio-friendlier, more commercial version of Neutral Milk Hotel’s bastard albums.

So Departing is really just more of the same from the RAA, but perhaps a bit watered down, an attempt at seeking a wider audience.

What the RAA did manage to retain, thankfully for them and the listener, is Nils Edenloff’s scratchy, raw, whiskey-soaked vocal delivery that is at times Jeff Mangum, at times Colin Meloy, but most often his very own hybrid of 90s indie-rock. It’s Edenloff’s simple, yet biting lyrics and his strained vocal cords that make Departing a good album.

A few songs appropriately reach almost anthemic, as anthemic as a country/folk/rock band can get, especially “Barnes’ Yard,” and that’s where the RAA missed the mark on Hometowns. But in reaching that point, the band lost touch with its tender side. The heart-wrenching, stripped-down ballad-moments are few and far between on this album, which is, to say the least, regretful.
More accessible proves the over-arching difference between Departing and Hometowns. The latest is no evolutionary step for the Canadian trio, all could be forgiven had it been. It’s simply more of the same, minus a little wheat-field twang. You can take the band out of the country, and apparently, the country out of the band—even against better judgment.