The Rural Alberta Advantage, rolling into their third album, are runners. They've left behind the towns that made them, driving for a nameless city. It's a city that's “cold, and cuts through [their] teeth,” but in its embrace, they'll do fine. They run from their rural namesake, someplace hinted at in the “Star Trek”-referencing enterprise “Vulcan, AB” and, once free of its grip, continue to run... and run...
The majority of Mended with Gold dedicates itself to that long-held tradition: The Rural Alberta Advantage flees the confines of rural Canada for a better life, taking with them the Bruce Springsteen ideologies that sent to friends across the river back in ’75. The Rural Alberta Advantage doesn't try to hide those themes either; they fully embrace that universal rock and roll dream, telling stories of trips to the city (“This City”) and those last-chance power drives that define so much of Americana these days (look no further than album closer “... On the Run”).
Why, then, might Mended with Gold stand out from so many other bands who've taken up that Springsteenian mantle? The RAA’s strength shines in its percussive drive and raw energy born from their highway rhythm. The vocals may bleed that heartland earnestness, with background singer/keyboardist Amy Cole uplifting Nils Edenloff's prairie growl to cathartic effect, but it’s drummer Paul Banwatt who delivers the punch to Mended with Gold. Whether it's the cadence of “To Be Scared” or the thrash metal pistons behind “Our Love...,” Banwatt fires up the engines of The Rural Alberta Advantage's folk rock escapes and gives them the life that so many fellow indie bands would rather gloss over.
So, as they take to those roads jammed with broken heroes and more-than-a-handful of indie folk rockers, they do so with an energetic desire that sees them taking a lead. Where they would normally strum the same chords and hum the same tunes, The Rural Alberta Advantage would rather let the engines lead their run, breaking into moments of near-spiritual delight (take the finale to “The Build”). At the end, they have no problem reaching their destination; they finish in the city's lukewarm embrace, closing an indie rock record with the appetite to make those runs they dream of.
Rating: B
