Label: Still Records / Dine Alone Records
Released: 31st March 2023
In quick succession, Dallas Green lost close friends and family members and his marriage broke down too. These make for the foundations of ‘The Love Still Held Me Near’.
With so much to unpack, City and Colour’s approach is to step back from their recent, more psychedelic and bluesy, experimentation and instead revert to their Americana-style roots to give Dallas room to take up the role of storyteller.
Despite dealing with some enormous losses, this album shines with optimism thanks to tracks like ‘Things We Choose to Care About’ and the infectious and upbeat ‘Underground’. Brooding numbers like ‘A Little Mercy’ balance the album and act as a snapshot to both sides of the coin of Dallas’s renewed relationship with mortality.
That perspective allows this album to become City and Colour’s most accomplished album yet. Fraught with emotion and deeply textured, it feels like a vital album for Dallas on a personal level but, as a City and Colour record, it’s a celebration of all that makes them so special.
