Fireboy

Q - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...this, his second record, might be the one to catch a wider ear...replete with tunes that hover enticingly between tentative and triumphant..." Spin - Included on Spin's list of the `10 Best Albums You Didn't Hear In '95' - "...McLennan's songs plumb seekers' hearts and emerge echoing their questions....`What went wrong?' wonders the songwriter, over and over, surveying it all..." Mojo - "...something of a mid-'80s R.E.M. feel. The gentle 'Ice In Heaven' and the folky country track 'I'll Call You Wild' stand out, but the other 22 songs...are equally seductive." Musician - "...Swathed in acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjo, laptop steel and the silvery backing vocals of Syd Straw, HORSEBREAKER STAR is a stunner...the music swings from solemn confessionals to humorous contempt while spinning a memorable collection of storybook vignettes..." Rolling Stone - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Virtually all of them marvelous, the...tunes on HORSEBREAKER STAR make it clear: Grant McLennan is one of today's best songwriters....He's also an effortless melodist who can both rock and break your heart..."

Having successfully collaborated with Dave Dobbyn on Fireboy, McLennan repeated the pattern with his third album, Horsebreaker Star, recorded in Athens, GA. His key musical coworker and producer of choice this time: John Keane, with credits ranging from R.E.M. and the Indigo Girls to Vic Chesnutt and Widespread Panic. Besides handling the recording, Keane contributes everything from guitars to xylophone. There's definitely more of a country/Southern rock bent to Horsebreaker Star at parts, though advantageously it's something that suggests itself in the arrangements and performances rather than dominating the songs. For all the occasional steel guitar and fiddle parts (the short, enjoyable instrumental "Race Day Rag" could almost be a slice of wistful Beach Boys Americana thanks to Keane's banjo), McLennan isn't certainly reinventing himself as a Deep South denizen. His ear for focused, sharp lyrical portraits of life and love, paired with his ever-striking crisp singing style, continues to lead the way, while the occasional backing vocals from Syd Straw provide a great complement for that approach. Whether it's the alternating between tension and perversely soothing choruses on "I'll Call You Wild" and the string-touched, wry music-industry portrait (possibly of the Go-Betweens itself) "Coming Up for Air," or more revved-up songs like "Dropping You," there's plenty to love. Other worthy numbers include the enjoyably low-key fire of "Put You Down," one of the more Go-Betweens-like songs on the album, the warm surge and drama of "Open My Eyes," which deserved to be this album's hit single so very much, and the acoustic guitar/voice winner "From My Lips." In a discographical curiosity, the American version of the album subtracts some six tracks (allegedly for being "too country" in style, strangely enough) while adding Fireboy's admittedly excellent "Lighting Fires." Better to just find Fireboy on its own and to hunt down the original double-disc version if possible. ~ Ned Raggett|

Having successfully collaborated with Dave Dobbyn on Fireboy, McLennan repeated the pattern with his third album, Horsebreaker Star, recorded in Athens, GA. His key musical coworker and producer of choice this time: John Keane, with credits ranging from R.E.M. and the Indigo Girls to Vic Chesnutt and Widespread Panic. Besides handling the recording, Keane contributes everything from guitars to xylophone. There's definitely more of a country/Southern rock bent to Horsebreaker Star at parts, though advantageously it's something that suggests itself in the arrangements and performances rather than dominating the songs. For all the occasional steel guitar and fiddle parts (the short, enjoyable instrumental "Race Day Rag" could almost be a slice of wistful Beach Boys Americana thanks to Keane's banjo), McLennan isn't certainly reinventing himself as a Deep South denizen. His ear for focused, sharp lyrical portraits of life and love, paired with his ever-striking crisp singing style, continues to lead the way, while the occasional backing vocals from Syd Straw provide a great complement for that approach. Whether it's the alternating between tension and perversely soothing choruses on "I'll Call You Wild" and the string-touched, wry music-industry portrait (possibly of the Go-Betweens itself) "Coming Up for Air," or more revved-up songs like "Dropping You," there's plenty to love. Other worthy numbers include the enjoyably low-key fire of "Put You Down," one of the more Go-Betweens-like songs on the album, the warm surge and drama of "Open My Eyes," which deserved to be this album's hit single so very much, and the acoustic guitar/voice winner "From My Lips." In a discographical curiosity, the American version of the album subtracts some six tracks (allegedly for being "too country" in style, strangely enough) while adding Fireboy's admittedly excellent "Lighting Fires." Better to just find Fireboy on its own and to hunt down the original double-disc version if possible. ~ Ned Raggett