What makes the music from left-of-center labels like Secretly Canadian so awkward, yet so gripping, is the understated, yet willfully weird presentation. The bands on these artist collectives (as in, these labels are about the music, not money) know exactly what they are doing when they subtly shove a genre in your face, dutifully crumple up what you think you know, and then uncurl it gently to reveal a sound that the listener can ignore only at his/her own peril. There’s something sweet yet disarming about this approach, as if these labels and bands are politely asking the fan’s/critic’s permission to engage in some musical deconstruction.
Enter Windsor For The Derby and their new release How We Lost, an album that basks in an ocean of melancholy, but exults in a hopeful optimism. The band has spent the last year and a half writing and recording the album, overcoming all facets and forms of obstacles, whether technical, mechanical, or emotional. The result is a record that calls to mind the exact image portrayed in the cover artwork: a rainbow peeking through a bank of clouds to find blue skies. The music treks through the human psyche, starting with the ambient pulses of “Let Go,” tumbles into the valleys of “Fallen Off The Earth” and “Forgotten,” climbs the peaks of “Hold On” and “What We Want,” and finds resolution in “Spirit Fade.” Serving as a blissful mix of folk and pop that’s both trippy and dreamy and yet shies away from psychedelic clichés, Windsor For The Derby has put together a record perfect for those afternoons of contemplation, perched on a sunny, grassy hillside with you and your friends.
-- Adam P. Newton [June 2, 2008]
