The lead singer of Our Lady Peace has gone indie! Canada’s Raine Maida is releasing a solo album on
Kingnoise Records, and he’s abandoned the falsetto affect you might be familiar with (well, not abandoned—he still falls into it occasionally, especially when he’s harmonizing with himself on overdubs), and traded it for an honest, rock and roll voice.
“Hunter’s Lullaby,†like most indie rock coming out these days, is a little dark, a little creepy, but there’s traces of the pop chops he showed when he helped write Kelly Clarkson’s, “Walk Away.” “The Less I Know,†for example, has an Alice In Chains lite
feel, and it would be easy to imagine that in a teen girl’s hands, with a big band a crashing flourish, it would be a monster hit. (I could do without the rap break, though—whoever Jared Paul is, he should hang it up.) “The Snake and the Crown†has a Buck 65 feel—it’s edgier than Everlast, but its white blues rap all the same. I’m interested, but I’m not loving it until the bridge into the alt-rock chant, “Who let
you down? We did. We did.†Other tracks keep the grimey feel going, like creeping menace of “Careful What You Wish For,†which could easily be a Nick Cave outtake, featuring a chilling recurring piano riff crawling through darkness.
Check it out.
Bonus live cuts!
