Release date: April 10, 2007
Label: True North Records
Tracks: 11
Rating: 5
This all-female three-piece band is a Canadian group based in Ontario who formed in 2004 and have been enjoying a local fan base. The Impatient Romantic is the band’s first full-length album, and it follows a self-titled four-track record that did a lot to bring in the local audiences and a few ranging farther across Canada.
The band describes itself as a musical Jimmy Dean; someone who you either love or hate, but can’t hate because ?he is just himself and he never promised you anything? (1). Such is the band, and I must say such is the album. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the record; however, there are elements of it that I admire and can’t disregard.
Although the vocalizations almost set my teeth grating on each other at the outset, they weren’t as unbearable as I thought they might be throughout the record. That said, they aren’t pleasant. The songs are very much in tune with the album title, looking into jaded little love stories with a bitter eye and an ambition to go out, have sex freely, and not feel (the goal according to the lyrics!). These 11 tracks give the impression of being well thought out; they just don’t speak to me on any level and I have no desire to ever hear them again.
What is unusual about the record is that it really doesn’t come off sounding typically Canadian like so many other indie and alternative artists do. This might easily be an international band with a few features on the Friends soundtrack as far as I’m concerned; despite Canadian references like ?Van-City,? It’s more a feminist record than a Canadian one. Not that there is anything wrong with that. In fact, It’s nice to know our countryfolk can handle something more than a solemn and gritty pledge to the home nation and all its quirks.
If anything, That’s what I most appreciated about Hunter Valentine on this album: the ability to present the world with something wholly Canadian without needing to actually point that fact out. In terms of the music itself, however, I’ve heard better indie, better alternative, and better all-girl bands. Not only is this band not for me, but I’d wager It’s not for many of you either. At least they’ve got their Ontario fans!
(1) Hunter Valentine website. ?Bio.? Retrieved June 19, 2007, from http://www.huntervalentine.com/bio.html
