• Newsletter Sign up
• Subscribe
• Back Issues
• Sample Issue
• Contact Us

The Trews Hope & Ruin BUMSTEAD

From page 73 of Classic Rock Magazine June 2011

Cover of June 2011 issue.

Pop rock with intelligence and depth.

Ah, so here we go with a bunch of earnest Canadians who deal in introspective pop rock and look like overgrown students. This’ll be fun, eh?

Well, you know what? It is definitely enjoyable. Entertaining even. Because The Trews aren’t quite what you might expect from such a description. On this their fourth album in eight years, they’ve a refreshing vitality and a tendency to look at the world in a quirkily observational manner. The songs all creep up on you, rather than being over-the-top. What they will ensure is that you’ll want to go back and check them out again and again. Unlike so many others in this genre, they aren’t content to come up with two or three reasonably hummable tunes, and let them carry a record overladen with mediocrity. No, they want each song to be able to stand alone, unaided. And this approach works impressively. At times,

this album brings to mind early Bryan Adams with Rush’s musical aspirations. Colin MacDonald is clearly a singer who digs deep to bring emotions to the surface and then deals with the consequences. Already big news in their native country, Hope & Ruin might just lift them up here as well.

■■■■■■■■■■

Malcolm Dome