
The Mark Inside – Whatever Doesn’t Kill You Can Still Leave You Crippled
Rock trends seem to go in cycles. Duh! If we were to identify the two main trends, though and believe me, this is oddly something I spend an inordinate amount of time on, are miserabilism and self-assurance.
Take, for example, the gloomy British musical landscape of the 1980s. With seemingly no hope left for decent music, out popped out the Smiths, whose lyrics sounded like the posthumous work of a poet who’d made a suicide pact. Their influence was colossal, but a few years on, the world had had it with so much honesty. It was time for bands like the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays to spread their colourful sounds and vague messages of self-empowerment.
I am saying this because the honesty of The Mark Inside’s Whatever Doesn’t Kill You Can Still Leave You Crippled might just seem like something that’s a bit too much to handle. However, this Canadian group is determined to tell it like it is, underneath convincing alternative rock backing.
The Roof – We Sure Did
It’s pretty amazing how many guitars and music lessons the classic rock band, like Led Zeppelin and the Beatles, are still able to sell. Well, there’s no way this could be proven, of course. Otherwise, Jimmy Page and Paul McCartney might be asking for royalties from every guitar teacher who got employed to teach someone to play Stairway to Heaven or Blackbird.
It goes without saying that those sorts of bands are the bedrock of this art form that involves three-minute singles, guitar solos, and heartfelt lyrics. Yet, because of this, perhaps, it’s also the reason why once in a while, the world gets treated to outright clones, mimicking the music of old without much connection to the present.
The Roof might just be better than that, as shown on We Sure Did, a charming classic-pop number. Sure, their feet are firmly planted in the past, but they know who the modern future classics are most likely going to be, and they welcome their influence. We Sure Did is a charming pop song with distinguished, soulful vocals and a celebratory feel.