Album Review: Sam Tudor – The Modern New Year

Most students celebrate the end of first term by sleeping, eating too much food at family Christmas dinners, and drinking excessively (and not just eggnog!). Vancouver based singer-songwriter-UBC-student-all-around-good-guy Sam Tudor decided to spend his Christmas break a bit differently. He gathered a few of his musically inclined friends and family, notably Brent Morton and Harry Tudor, drove out to a cabin in the woods at Gavin Lake Camp, and recorded his second album, The Modern New Age.

The effects of this recording environment seem to resonate throughout the album, which, while at points melancholy, has a nostalgic air that brings you right into that cabin in the woods, escaping from the bitterly cold air outside. Tudor crafts songs that blend the familiar with the new, striking a balance between comforting instrumentation and thought provoking lyrics. This is wholly illustrated in the excellent opening tracks from the album. “Modern New Year” catches the ear, as an opener always should, with a “cheap” sounding drum machine beat softly backing a vocal riff lazily and gloomily sung in harmony. Then Tudor enters, clearly and carefully shaping visually stimulating verses and a catchy chorus. I love the echoed and distance vocals in the second verse calling from afar.

The Modern New Year continues at a pace that balances the mellower songs against the peppy, goofy tracks such as “The Exhaltation Of Some Things (Get On Out)”. This track shows off Tudor’s more playful side with a kazoo solo reminiscent of the Beat Farmers’ “Happy Boy,” and various whistling jingles and jangles flowing in between string parts. The laughter ending the track just caps it off oh so well.

On the other hand, on more serious tracks like “The Mezzanine Waltz” and “The Darkness Song” Sam’s song writing really shines through. “The Darkness Song,” my favourite from the album, is a gloomy, brooding march that builds towards the finish, highlighted by mellow banjo picking and a tasteful solo. However, it is the coupled male and female vocals that really make the track. It’s a song equally fit for a downtrodden bar as it is for a campfire somewhere in the interior.

“The Modern New Year” is a prime example how a little d.i.y. attitude and a pitcher full of talent can create something rivaling anything produced in a multi-million dollar studio. In some ways, Tudor attempts to tackle the issue of computer produced studio albums being released everyday on his last track “Lottapeople Blues.” As Tudor laments: “every 10 track game plan measuring in charts and pounds” and “everyone the same, clogging up the drain a billion times,” he makes the case for going back to the music, cutting out the excess, and instead huddling around a mic in a cabin in the woods.

Keep your eyes out for Sam's CD release party in late September/early October!