The band Blue Rodeo got their start way back in 1984 in Toronto, Canada. The band signed with Warner Music Group and released their debut titled, Outskirts in 1987. Since then the group has released 11 studio albums, 2 live albums, and a greatest hits collection with the band’s total album sales surpassing the 4 million copies sold mark.

Over the years the band’s lineup has undergone a few changes with their current lineup consisting of original band members, Jim Cuddy (guitar/vocals), Greg Keelor (guitar/vocals) and Brazil Donovan (bass) along with new additions Glenn Milchem (drums), and Bob Egan (multi-instruments; guitars, pedal steel, banjo).

The band’s latest release, The Things We Left Behind, is a double-disc and their 12th studio album. The project comes in several different variations, as a 12×12 double gatefold, double vinyl album packaged with a double CD, individual full color art CD sleeves, and a lyrics insert or you can get the double CD version that comes without the double vinyl album.

All sixteen of the songs that are found on The Things We Left Behind are brand new and were co-written by original band members Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor.

I’m writing my review based on the 2-CD version of the release. Each of the CD’s feature 8 tracks that are filled with the band’s signature sound that’s a mixture of country, folk, and root’s rock music.

The lead vocals on the songs are shared by both Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy. You’ll be able to recognize who’s singing what by their distinctive vocal styles. Keelor’s vocals are deeper while Cuddy’s are higher-pitched and more treble sounding. You’ll also find lots of guest vocals courtesy of Canadian singer-songwriter and Indie rock band Cuff the Duke vocalist and guitarist.

Disc one of the release starts off with the track, “All The Things We Left Behind,” a song that starts out with an orchestral sound and a subtle deep drumbeat but as the song progresses moves more into a roots rock style. Lyrically the song deals with a broken relationship.

An interesting side note about “All the Things That Are Left Behind” is that it was the first song that Keelor says he ever wrote using the piano. The song also includes some interesting sounds from sampled tympanis that were then tuned to the track. The band also used a Mellotron to add cello and flute sounds to the track.

For those of you, like me, who aren’t really sure what a Mellotron is, it’s an electro-mechanical, polyphonic keyboard used a lot in 60s and 70s progressive rock music. The main component of the instrument is a bank of parallel linear magnetic audio tapes, which have eight seconds of playing time each. Playback heads located underneath each key enable the playing of pre-recorded sounds.

Next up is the song, “One More Night,” a lively keys (organ & Wurlitzer) and pedal steel filled track that has a really catchy sound that had my toes tapping along to its beats.

The next track that I would like to talk about is, “Never Look Back.” This up-tempo roots rocker is filled with well done guitar parts and vocal harmonies. Like many of the other songs the theme found on this one revolves around bad relationships.

The last song that I want to mention from disc-1 is, “One Light Left in Heaven.” The song is one of the several more melodic tracks that are found on The Things We Left Behind. The song has a real richness found on it thanks to its lush, guitar, violin and cello string parts.

Highlight tracks from disc-2 of the set includes the alt. country/roots rock track, “Arizona Dust,” and the interesting sounding track “Wasted,” that’s filled with both lively key work and some spacey sounding instrumental parts.

The 10-minutes long country/roots rocker, “Venus Rising,” gets the honor of wrapping up the music that’s found on disc-2. This song features several very lengthy period in which the song’s instrumentation is left to roam free in its green musical pastures. Lyrically the song deals with relationship issues that are a common theme found on this release. This time around though it’s about how life on the road can be really hard on a relationship.

There are several things that make The Things We Left Behind work so well including the large amounts of instrumentation that’s found in its songs, that are left to run free and not tied down to some shortened radio friendly formula. Also the several different style of music that are found in the songs that make up this release work very well together with each given their own time in the musical spotlight.

The 16 songs that make up The Things We Left Behind have the feel of having been through the fires of life and time spent on the road and have come out of it finely sharpened and ready to go!

Label: Warner – Rating: 3.75 out of 4 Guns

Like Blue Rodeo? Check out: Drive-By Truckers, Wilco, Gram Parsons