Canadian singer/songwriter Dallas Green’s solo project City and Colour takes on a new sound in his fifth album released since 2005. If you’ve tracked Green’s career or are of a certain age, Green will always be associated with punk and teenage angst as the headman for his former band Alexisonfire.

Now, his solo career as City and Colour has brought a new twist to his distinctive writing style. His debut album Sometimes is the definitive approach which City and Colour has built a reputation on; introspective lyrics accompanied with a quiet, acoustic melody resulting in heart-wrenching folk music. The accompanying three albums follow suit with slight adjustments to provide additions to the original ideology, but always resulting with similar end products.

If I Should Go Before You breaks this cycle right from the opening song ‘Woman’, a nine minute song with shades of rock and blues about the immortality of a couple’s love. Throughout the album the drums provide a driving force, with various guitar riffs providing country undertones on tracks ‘Runaway’ and ‘Lover Come Back’, or more of a gospel feel with the addition of the organ in ‘Killing Time’.

You can hear the difference with the live recording done on most of this album, as well as the improvements made by incorporating more of a band vibe instead of Green’s usual one-man show. If I Should Go Before You maintains Green’s signature melancholic lyrics of pondering on life and death, paired with writing specifically for band performance. The results are a beautiful rock folk album with fresh spins enlarging a familiar sound, proving that Green continues to formulate stimulating new ideas even after years of successful song writing.

Jenna Machin