Cape Bretoner Stone took his act to Toronto and got some sheen from producers Jason Collett (Broken Social Scene) and Howie Beck. The most BSS-sounding track is “Signs of Life,” with thundering drums, gentle horns and tendency to run long. Some touches, like prominent looped handclaps on the title song, run counter to the east coast musical playbook, if such a thing exists. More successful is “The Darkness,” slowly building layers of dread against a multi-sourced bottom. Guitar sounds run through reggae, psychedelia (“Like a Knife”) and Coldplay atmospherics. With Stone’s songs thriving in this setting, he may need a bigger band.
