All of Us

Canadas Sam Roberts Band offer more of their lyrical, rhythmically infectious rock on their seventh full-length, 2020s heartfelt All of Us. The album follows 2016s Juno Award-nominated Terraform and again finds the Montreal-based singer/songwriter exploring themes of rebirth and hope for the future. In some ways, Roberts music is a bridge between the groove-oriented rock of bands like Primal Scream and the folky power pop-influenced style of fellow Canadians the New Pornographers. Its a vibe Roberts has been cultivating since breaking through with his 2003 Juno Award-winning debut, We Were Born in a Flame, and one that he further develops here. Recorded in the wake of the contentious 2016 U.S. presidential election and during a period of seemingly endless global turmoil, All of Us feels like Roberts searching for a communal sense of positivity and hope. Its a feeling he conjures from the start of the album on the spare, synth-based Wolf Tracks, singing In the darkest times, were running for the light/And in the hardest times, dont turn your back on the fight. He returns to this notion of resistance and renewal throughout the album, singing Its never too late to turn around on the driving, Tom Petty-sque Ascension and dreaming of blue skies and seaside escape from lifes worries on the psychedelic anthem Take Me Away. Elsewhere, he explores 60s folk textures on the rootsy Spellbound and evokes the dancey, bass-heavy groove of his early hit Brother Down on I Like the Way You Talk About the Future. ~ Matt Collar