Human Highway
Moody Motorcycle
(Secret City Records)
The harmonies on this collaboration by Jim Guthrie (solo, ex-Royal City) and Nick Thorburn (Islands, ex-Unicorns) are exquisite. The duo sings together like an updated version of The Everly Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel or Travelling Wilburys, where two voices stitch together seamlessly. Elsewhere contrast is high and powerful: Thorburn delivers a dark, sleepy lead and Guthrie a distant and soaring chorus. They take turns writing, too. But the harmonious collaboration keeps to an overall melancholic folk-pop arrangement, a musical straightaway comfortably ridden throughout this Moody Motorcycleand that ultimately stalls it.
–Sean Flinn
categories: Canadian artist
This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2008.