“Your Colours” – Absolute Losers
This Canadian trio, featuring two brothers and a close friend, have a sound that tap-dances knowingly through all three major power-pop eras, from the antecedent mid-’60s through the genre’s new wave rebirth in the late ’70s and further into the alt-rock iteration of the ’90s and early ’00s. The Beatles, the Jam, Fountains of Wayne–they’re all packed into the sound heard throughout In the Crowd, the band’s second album (the title itself a nod to Paul Weller’s old band).
“Your Colours,” however, harkens back most of all to the innocent sounds of 60-some years past, with its carefully articulated guitar lines, just-so melodies, well-etched harmonies, succinct bridge, and satisfying resolutions. The musical ache in the minor-to-major chorus is positively Beatlesque, and while we have traveled far into pastiche territory here, there’s something in the earnest construction and performance that wins me over. And then there’s the final quarter of the song, an extended coda, launched by a modulation at 2:34, which shifts the sound and feel forward in time while remaining true to the musical core.
Absolute Losers hail from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. You’ll find their albums and singles over there on Bandcamp.
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