Sam Roberts - We Were Born In Flame

Our neighbor to the north has produced its fair share of rock acts, but for most Canadian artists, the buzz doesn’t survive and breaking into the US market proves a very difficult task. In walks the Juno award winning Sam Roberts; a singer songwriter praised highly for his songwriting and performing, drawing comparisons in sound to, dare we say it, The Beatles. So does this one live up to the billing? Is America going to be taken over by the maple leaf and a guitar? Well, I doubt it, but it should be a good run. I won’t dispute for one moment that Roberts is talented and can write a song. The problem lies in the sound he produces and the familiarity of it. It is a great compliment to be compared in any fashion with The Beatles, but as an album We Were Born In A Flame just sounds too much like it was from 30-40 years ago. If people from the future were to hear the 60’s and then pop in this album, they would be likely to think that music hadn’t evolved or grown at all. The songs are all well done and solid pieces of work, but not original enough to garner extreme praise. All this is not to say the album doesn’t have its bright points. “Hard Road” is a great album opener, complete with guitar strum-a-long and an overall great tune, leading into a strong start to the album. The mid section is filled with good songs, minus the disappointing “Taj Mahal,” but the end recovers nicely with two of the albums strong tracks, “This Wreck Of A Life” and “Dead End,” arguably the album's catchiest tune. Overall, this is a good album, filled with what made rock’n’roll music classic, but reinventing the wheel is reinventing the wheel. Roberts indeed has talent and the album is worth a listen, but the failure to explore anything new leaves the album a little deminished. Weighing in at thirteen tracks, the monotony can begin to wear and get a little bland. If you want an album that sounds like that ole time rock, you might not find many better than this one, but therein lies the problem. [www.samrobertsband.com]