Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada

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4...according to our Phil on Fri 06 Feb, 2009.

Woodpigeon release their second album called Treasury Library Canada. I like the title. I think it's nice. The album itself is reasonably pleasant commercial singer songwriter music. Fans of Iron & Wine and Grizzly Bear are supposed to like this apparently but it's a wee it more commercial than those bands. There's some hints of (very) early Snow Patrol and early Turin Brakes in there I reckon 'n all. The songs are well crafted and they stick in your head after a solitary listen so they're clearly a talented bunch. I love the word bunch... it's one of my favourites you know. I'm warming to this (despite it not really being my sort of thing) as the music as it's all so well put together I can't but help appreciate it. Limited 2 CD set as well only available from 3 shops apparently and we're one of 'em. Lordy me!

Brand new album from Canada's Woodpigeon: 14 tracks that kick off with the almost instant "hit" of "knock knock"....Having been championed by Steve Lamacq, played with Grizzly Bear, Iron & Wine and Andrew Bird, and toured with Broken Social Scene, Woodpigeon embarked on their first UK tour in September 2008, accompanied in part by their good friends Calexico. This coincided with the release of debut album ‘Songbook’, from which lead single ‘Chorus of Wolves’ followed two weeks later. ‘Treasury Library Canada’, the second album of this prolific collective, headed by creative provocateur Mark Hamilton. Fans of Sufjan Stevens, the Band, Iron & Wine, etc will be all over this.

TREASURY LIBRARY CANADA “Growing up in Canada, I remember flipping through the pages of those subscriber series of Encyclopedia Canadiana, wildlife picture books, and Disney collector books available at grocery stores and through mail order. I always begged my parents to subscribe, to get the monthly instalments mailed directly to our house. I'd wait what felt like ages between issues – all read cover-to-cover, of course, tossed onto the shelf and forgotten in wait for the next package. Diving back into those books as an adult and re-discovering just what waits inside behind dusty covers prompted the line of thinking behind the development of the songs on Treasury Library Canada. I didn't want these songs to be forgotten, to end up on the shelf collecting dust. While a lot of them were written around the same time that we were working on our first record Songbook, they didn't fit the overall story and feel of that record. But something kept them all together – a story started to emerge between the songs when left to their own devices. We throw a lot of words around these days – everyone cusses; it seems saying "I love you" gets easier for folks all the time – but I'm always careful with the words I choose. "Love" only goes to those who deserve it. "Hope" never really dies, no matter how bad things may seem. And "home," above all else, is only used correctly when it describes the place you're meant to be. I've written a lot of songs attempting to figure that out for myself since moving back to Canada, re-experiencing our winters, driving across our vast expanses of prairie. Treasury Library Canada helped me figure out just what the words listed above – and "home" in particular – truly mean to me.” – Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon

HOUNDSTOOTH EUROPA (BONUS DISC TRACKLISTING BELOW)

In Praise of The West Midlothian Bus Service

Oberkampf

Thoughts On The One Who Got Away By The One He Left Behind

...A Given (Home Demo)

Potsdamer Platz (Stomp, Stomp, Stomp)

Ladybug Ladybird (Home Demo)

Matty John Chyzyk

Anybody Somebody Everybody (Home Demo)

The Return Bus Ride Home

A Slight Return Home (Marshall's Homeless Remix)