The Moffatts

Well, friends, I'll be taking a bit of a vacation starting tomorrow -- not only from home, but from the blogosphere as well. I'll be gone for about two weeks (perhaps a bit longer), but rest assured that I'll be back with more of the wonderful music you've come to love from me ... and no doubt I'll pick up a few CDs along the way, since I plan on doing some hardcore music shopping at least once. But before I go....

THE MOFFATTS
"SUBMODALITIES"
(EMI/Canada, 2000)

"Life On Mars"
"Walking Behind"


Okay, folks, do you mind if I put aside the well-structured critiquing for a minute? I'll be honest with you ... I've been having a lot of trouble deciding how I was going to describe how much I totally love this album ... so much trouble that my brain was on the verge of seizing up like an oil-depleted car engine. Have you ever loved a CD so much, with every fiber of your being, that you felt like you needed to make it your life's mission to get every one of your friends -- and, if you ran out of them, random acquaintances and total strangers -- to love it too? If so, then you'll understand the essence of this blog entry, because for me, this is one of those albums.

I'll save space by not going into the band's history, but all the same I'll try not to prattle on too much. Suffice to say that "Submodalities" is the fourth and, unfortunately, final album by the Canadian sibling act The Moffatts, consisting of Scott and his younger triplet brothers, Dave, Clint, and Bob. It could easily have come across as an ill-conceived, pretentious attempt to escape the "boyband" label that their previous, bubblegum-pop album, 1998's "Chapter I: A New Beginning", almost branded them with, but the guys had the foresight to recruit producer-writers extraordinaire Bob Rock and John Shanks to help them focus their talents into creating a tour-de-force album that seems like a natural next step in their evolution as musicians.

My inability to put into structured thought how much I love this album is the main reason I'm posting two tracks from it instead of the normal one ... that, plus the fact that it gives the listener a better idea of how amazingly all-encompassing this album's songs are. From emo-punk-pop ("California") to power-balladry ("Who Do You Love") to psychedelic rock ("Life On Mars") to radio-friendly pop ("Bang Bang Boom") to epic experimental prog-rock ("Spy"), this CD comes about as close to having a various-artists-compilation feel as any album by a single group possibly can, helped by the fact that each of the four brothers sings lead vocal on at least one song.

Lest you think I'm exaggerating the excellence of this album, let me remind you that I have around one thousand CDs, and this one is -- and has been since the day it entered my collection -- my absolute favorite. This album could have and should have been a worldwide smash hit, and to this day I continue to curse The Universe that it wasn't. If you've liked even half of the stuff I've featured in this blog, then believe me when I say that your CD collection is not complete unless The Moffatts' "Submodalities" is a part of it. Trust me, it's worth every penny of whatever you spend on obtaining it ... and all you have to do is click on the cover art above. Don't you owe your music-loving self that much...?