Gary's Chad VanGaalen Review

Ladies and gentlemen - lay back, relax and allow Chad VanGaalen to take you on a trip. Or, perhaps more aptly put, a journey through time and space. A musical journey that's both beautiful and melancholic, stretching back through time. You'll hear the familiar madness of 60s style psychedelia then rocket forward and experience the futuristic sounds and blissed out space-pop the Calgary native can so delicately create.

Soft Airplane, VanGaalen's third full length release, is a near expertly-crafted album that pulls from all over the musical spectrum. From the onset I was instantly imagining VanGaalen as the perfect mash-up between Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens (many an indie fan's wet dream). But before you can tag him with a label, he's changed it up. The sheer fact he can pull off these varied sounds and influences is an achievement in itself, but the really impressive part is the way he deftly switches gears and never misses a step. At any point this album could have devolved into a messy, hodge-podge of VanGaalen's musical crushes. But somehow he makes the experience cohesive and unified, like a story unfurling before you. And as the attentive listener you try your best to anticipate what comes next, but chances are he'll leave you guessing. A hundred little nuances are peppered through the album from oboes to xylophones to harmonicas and you'll be pleasantly surprised by them all.

I mentioned the journey would be melancholic and it is. Death and hardship crop up all over the album and you wonder if perhaps VanGaalen is carrying more than a few ghosts around with him. He's more than happy to bear his soul to you and at times the music feels so small and intimate you're sure he's telling you a secret. Then suddenly the next song is so distant and soaked in reverb it's as if he's broadcasting from some lonely, distant planet - that perhaps we're hearing the haunting echo of a musician who dissolved along with the stars.

It's so apt that the album - and your journey - should come to a close with the sounds of a train disappearing into the distance (Rabid Bits of Time). The destination was never the point on this trip, but all the stops along the way. And yes - technically there is one more track that truly closes out the album. The skull-shaking noise rock of Frozen Energon is an indulgent little extra like the cherry to a sundae that instantly brings to mind The Velvet Underground.

I hope you enjoyed your trip.