The new album from David Kilgour and The Heavy Eights, Bobbie's a Girl, dropping on Merge Records on Friday, is full of small surprises. For long-time listeners of the legend from The Clean, those surprises come in how lyrical the record feels, even if the release is mostly full of instrumentals. Kilgour sounds relaxed here, but never disengaged. Even when playing something mellow, his playing is full of wit and spark.
If a fan can hear the influence of Bert Jansch in something like "Entrance", or Neil Young in "Smoke You Right Out of Here", lots of the other tracks on Bobbie's a Girl feature Kilgour's distinctive playing being pushed in new directions. "Crawler", for instance, echoes the kind of Americana Robbie Roberston tried out on a few solo releases, while "Threads" benefits immensely thanks to the brush-work of Taane Takona. The cut feels like something out of a dream, with Kilgour surprising by letting the track sweep over a listener, rather than get carried forward on the back of a guitar-frill or something. Elsewhere, "Coming in From Nowhere Now" is simple, and the sort of thing that sounds like it was meant for a soundtrack. All throughout Bobbie's a Girl, Kilgour has opted for mood over technique, a feature of the release highlighted by press materials.
Bobbie's a Girl is the sort of record that should surprise, and please, fans of David Kilgour. It's not a radical departure, but it is significantly different from his last few releases as to warrant some ink being spent in describing the changes found here. It's a warm record, and one which should be easy for any reader of this site to love as much as I did.
Bobbie's a Girl is out on Friday via Merge Records.
More details on David Kilgour via the official website.
[Photo: Genevieve McCoy]