Chantal Kreviazuk - “Under These Rocks and Stones”
Tracks:
- God Made Me
- Surrounded
- Don’t Be Good
- Believer
- Grace
- Wayne
- Imaginary Friend
- Hands
- Disagree
- Co-Dependent
- Green Apples
- Boot
- Actions Without Love
Here is yet another artist that was introduced to me by the now defunct radio station called “The River” out of Windsor, Ontario. They played a lot of great music, what can I say. The problem with this album was that it was only released in Canada at the time they were playing it. I happened to be put on a project for a Chrysler plant in suburban Toronto a few months after first hearing “God Made Me”, so during one of our trips up there I ducked into a mall and bought a copy. As it was, an American label picked it up about a year later. They re-ordered some of the songs, dropped the last track, and repackaged it with better graphics/pictures.
The US cover of the album.
Kreviazuk (DJ’s have always pronounced it KREV-E-AH-ZUCK) is a classically trained pianist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her music has it’s roots in a singer-songwriter style. As like Natalie Imbruglia (whom I posted about earlier), Kreviazuk’s husband is the lead singer of a more popular rock band, that being Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace.
“God Made Me”, as I mentioned earlier, was the single that pushed the radio airwaves. In some respects is has a rather non-singer-songwriter quality to it. I almost pictured someone dressed rather punk-like. The song had attitude and sarcasm. Only after listening to the whole album did I realize that she is surely a singer-songwriter. Also nice to hear with her being a pianist, there is a lot of guitar throughout the album. The album even begins with a few crunching chords from a guitar on “God Made Me”. I am not sure if that was Kreviazuk’s doing, or producers Peter Asher and Matt Wallace.
She does have a couple of nice solo piano and voice pieces (”Imaginary Friend” and “Actions Without Love”). These, along with the rockers (”Believer” and “Hands”) and the out of place songs (”God Made Me” and “Co-Dependent”) really highlight her range. And her voice range is pretty good, too. It’s sneaky though. Her voice has a husky timbre to it, but she can go rather high sometimes.
One other interesting thing, the song “Co-Dependent” almost sounds like it was written for her husband’s band, Our Lady Peace. At times the drums even sound like Jeremy Taggart (of OLP) was actually playing drums.
There is nothing “world defining” here, but it’s hard for me to stop listening. A very solid album that would appeal to fans of different styles within pop/rock.
June 16th, 2006 at 9:50 am
I have to admit, Chantal is my favourite Canadian female solo artist. I was first exposed to the song and video for “God Made Me” and I was impressed by her. I really didn’t think she would have the career that she has had, but it’s good that she did as she had made some great songs.
It’s hard to believe that the album, “Under These Rocks and Stones” has been around for about a decade (I think more than). The original album cover is hard to find, even in Canada. It was only around a few months. The repackaged version also apllied to Canada. I was originally going to buy the original version, but I eventually bought the re-packaged version later on when I had a better feel for the album as a whole.
My favourite song on there is “Surrounded” but I also love “God Made Me” “Believer” and “Wayne”
I also have her other two releases, “Colour Moving and Still” and “What If It All Means Something” There are great songs on both albums as well. I even the single for her version of “Leaving on a Jet Plane”
I do look forward to her next album.
June 16th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Quad … err, I mean DEAD!, thanks for the info. I do have her second album, but haven’t really listened to it that much. (I need to pull it out again.)
I think she also remade a Beatles song (I want to say it was “In My Life”) that was used for the opening credits of the show “Providence” with Melina Kanakaredes and Mike Farrell. I don’t know if I am remembering that correctly though.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Yes, it was Chantal who did “In My Life”, which was also the theme song for “Providence”.
In addition, the “Leaving on a Jet Plane” cover in the soundtrack for “Armageddon”, one of the songs on her most recent release was on the soundtrack for “How to Lose a Guy in 10 days”
She also did songs for the soundtrack for the curling movie “Men With Brooms” and “Dawson’s Creek”