Sam Roberts is as Don Cherry would say, "A good Canadian kid." Over the last few years he's turned out a number of pop gems. By all accounts he's just getting started and will only get better. He's hit a bit of a plateau here at home, and unless he manages to break wide open he'll end up being yet another of Canada's great bands that you probably haven't heard of joining the ranks of Sloan, and The Tragically Hip.

The Inhuman Condition (©2002 MapleMusic Recordings)

1: Don't Walk Away Eileen 2: Brother Down 3: Where Have All The Good People Gone? 4: When Everything Was Alright 5: My Love Is Freeing 6: This Is How I Live

Everything old is new again. This is an infectious ep, and is solid from beginning to end. Although young Sam will learn that screaming Mother Fudger at the end of an album is a sure fire way to really piss off the older prudes who really liked your stuff, and basically prevent your album from being played anywhere where younger kids are listening.

Stupid Sam. Since my little kids were dancing around the living room the first and last time I played this on the family room stereo. It would have seen a lot more play with the big speakers - oh well, the PC speakers are pretty good too. There, I've officially turned into an old fart, but Sam, this is the stuff I cut my teeth on, and as good as you are it's all derivative. But you're in excellent company now along side bands like The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and even the wankers in Oasis (who appreciate a good hook, and a loud guitar, and a dose of the rock and roll spirit). I hope you can keep it up as this one is just an ep for crying out loud, let's see what you can do with a full release.

Anyway thus endeth the lecture - like he'll really give a crap about what I think. "Brother Down" got a lot of attention but it's not the best song on the ep. That honour goes to "Don't Walk Away Eileen". I also really like the wandering bridge on "Where Have All The Good People Gone". The first time I heard it I thought it was too long and boring, but after a listen or two it really gets going.

So, I take my hat off to you, and wish you more success than a bag of hammers. To quote Don Cherry, "He's a good Canadian kid, this Sam. He'd have been a hell of a hockey player." (Sigh, okay Don didn't say that, but he could have - maybe)

Lord knows we need more real rock and roll in the world.

Reviewed May 2003

We Were Born In A Flame (©2003 MapleMusic / Universal)

1: Hard Road 2: Where Have All The Good People Gone 3: Brother Down 4: Higher Learning 5: Dead End 6: Taj Mahal 7: Every Part Of Me 8: The Canadian Dream 9: Rarefied 10: On The Run 11: Don't Walk Away Eileen 12: No Sleep 13: This Wreck Of A Life 14: Paranoia

Dig out the granola and pass the pipe dude, Sam Roberts is in the house.

Sam once again assumes most of the musical duties this time around, and shows us old farts that the spirit of rock and roll isn't dead, it's just undergoing a facelift, and a nip and tuck. Sam has a great feel for melody, and despite the rocker look to this guy We Were Born in a Flame is a surprisingly subdued effort. It's a long slow burn which occasionally flashes into a full fledged scorcher.

Unlike his previous release Sam has reigned in some of the musical meandering. Which depending on your point of view might be a good thing. I kind of liked the loose feel to the ep, but can appreciate Sam tightening things up a bit. A few of the songs from the last one make an encore appearance here, but there are still ten songs here that deserve attention. There are some really good songs here, dare I say excellent without sounding like some paid sycophant? From start to finish it doesn't have any filler.

I've been waiting a while to see how long this one would hold my attention. I bought it the day it was released, and read a number of the early reviews, and they were gushing to the point of being kind of embarrassing. With the first couple of listens I figured it was a worthy step forward but it wasn't sinking in. So I let it play off and on for a couple of months, and this one really does have some longevity.

Hopefully Sam's image doesn't get the better of him and he is able to age in to the music he so obviously loves. Oh to be so young and full of vigor and vim. Not to mention a heaping helping of naiveté. Socialism indeed. Grade 10 stuff at best.

I suspect in the next year or so we'll be treated to a full on band effort. It will be interesting to see what the influence of other musical voices will bring to his sound.

So far the kid is hitting all the right notes.

Rock on Sam.

Reviewed August 19, 2003

Chemical City (©2006)

1: The Gate 2: Bridge To Nowhere 3: With A Bullet 4: Mind Flood 5: Uprising Down Under 6: Mystified, Heavy 7: An American Draft Dodger In Thunder Bay 8: The Bootleg Saint 9: The Resistance 10: A Stone Would Cry Out

Okay okay so I'm a little late, but what the heck - it was just released a month ago in the UK, so I'm not that far behind. Heck, sometimes it take me 20 years to write something up. In my defense I did pick this up the week it came out, and it spent months playing around the house. I really liked it, but I couldn't get my thougts together: It was more of the same, yet it was a departure from his last album. It was deeper, more artistic, and more mature. I know of a few people who expected more songs like "Brother Down" or "Don't Walk Away Eileen" and didn't like this one that much.

So here I am, listening to it again for the first time in a while, and I was struck by how cool many of these songs are. Sam really pulled out the stops and went all out. This is an album full of rich textures, and like his Swedish contemporaries TSOOL (The Soundtrack of out Lives) he's putting out some of the finest new classic rock you're likely to hear.

It would be too easy to dismiss poor Sam as a derivative little wanker without an original thought in his head - it would also be unfair. Sam lives this stuff - and the band he's put together was an itegral part Chemical City, and you can hear the cohesiveness the guys have brought with them for their time on the road. They're able to complete each other's musical thoughts.

This is a kick ass record.

Reviewed December 21, 2007

Love At The End Of The World (©2008)

1: Love At The End Of The World 2: Stripmall Religion 3: Oh Maria 4: Lions Of The Kalahari 5: Fixed To Ruin 6: Them Kids 7: Words & Fire 8: Sundance 9: Up Sister 10: End Of The Empire 11: The Pilgrim 12: Waking The Dead 13: Detroit '67

I'm a little at odds here with myself. I didn't want to wait a year while this sunk in to write it up - I also didn't want to write about my first impressions either. So I compromised. I played it for an entire day.

Over ... and over and over, and over.

What bothers me about Love at the End of the World is that Sam opted for a wall of mud sound. There's almost too much going on, and at times the songs gets over powered. Mike Fraser is a great mixer, and it was mastered by Bob Ludwig - what happened? Rather than a sparkling crisp album, the songs here are sonically mushy. The bass often sounds like it's coming out of a blown woofer. A low end buzz doesn't give me the kick in the gut a fat kick and bass can deliver. That's really my only complaint with the album. I guess the intent was to give the album a more retro feel by making it sound kind of shitty.

Yeah, I know I'm being a bit of a dick. However, let's move on to the best part of a Sam Roberts album - and that's the songs. Sam is an odd duck musically - he's actually sounding like himself now, and when I hear his stuff, I no longer hear the influences he's borrowed from - I hear Sam's musical voice. That's a cool thing, and not something many artists are able to pull off. While most of the songs fall into mid tempo rock territory, they're really not boring or beaten from the same template.

Sam and his band, who have been road tested now for a number of years, play well off of each other. "Them Kids" is an odd song, and makes me smile when I hear a young man himself, lamenting that kids today can't dance to rock and roll. The biggest surprise was the boogie woogie "Detroit '67" which starts off riffing on Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" and then take a right turn. There isn't really any filler on the album, which is cool. This actually feels like an album of cohesive songs that work together. That's a beautiful thing.

I really do like this album - it's not his best work, but it's a worthy contribution to his body of work. Who knows, in time even the Phil Sphincter wall of shit sound will even grow on me.

Stranger things have happened.

Reviewed September 19, 2008