However I think this output deserves some more sentences and so I’ll write a little more. Anthem Red was the title of the last record of a brilliant band called Sixty Stories and this is no coincidence. In fact Anthem Red is Sixty Stories with another drummer plus the second guitarist that joined the band in their latter days. The style hasn’t changed a lot but the second guitar opens the band a far bigger spectre of harmonies and gives them the chance to play around with more guitar leads. Plus the sound of this records is better than any that Sixty Stories ever had on their recordings.

Lead vocals are shared mostly by the two women the band, guitarist Jo Snyder and bassist Sarah Sangster while second guitarist Andrew Filyk is singing lead vocals on one song he also wrote the lyrics for which is btw the title track. I love all the lyrics about love and what it does to one and all the emotional troubles you get into when you are away from home so often and don’t lead a “normal” life. There hasn’t been such an honest on-the-road album since the last record by fellow Canadians The Sainte Catherines. I love this record.

File under: Records that will never be in any end of year polls because they were released “between the years” but that would damn much deserve it! I am close to crying when I think about the fact hat I missed this band and its older twin Sixty Stories on their tour in late 2006 because I was on tour myself. Please come back to Europe soon! PS: “broken english” could become one of my favourite songs ever…  [jan]

www.myspace.com/anthemred