Rating: NNN
There’s a lot packed into Vancouverite/Montrealer Mark Berube’s fourth CD – dense, socially charged lyrics that sparkle with detail, a sprawling sound that avoids easy classification (he’s chosen Folk/Melodramatic Popular Song for his MySpace profile, which seems about right), and instrumentation that includes gospel-style harmony, piano, strings, mandolin, horns and Berube’s yearning voice, which brings to mind a more tentative Rufus Wainwright.
What The Boat Gave The River is a companion to 2007’s What The River Gave The Boat, and each song “echoes” a corresponding song. Ambitious, definitely, but its earnestness will be tough for some to swallow.
Mark Berube launches his new CD at Cervejaria Saturday (October 11).