The Constantines must be down and out. To make music this heartfelt, there’s no way around it. Their third latest album “Tournament Of Hearts” was the last album released by the Guelph, Ontario quintet’s Canadian label because they couldn’t afford it anymore. Thank goodness that respected indie giant Sub Pop found these guys, or else we’d be missing out on a lot.
As a result Tournament Of Hearts is a big record. Not “big” in the sense of, say, a million-selling U2 record, but big in the sense that the band has a bleaker yet more mature outlook on music—and on urban life.
Maybe the best adjective to describe the Constantines would be “weary.” It’s apparent from the very beginning with the first song, “Draw Us Lines.” Amidst a backdrop of swirling feedback and a building, pounding drumbeat, vocalist/ guitarist Bryan Webb sounds urgent and gruff.
Webb’s voice is one of the most interesting in rock music. It’s deep and rough, equally perfect for howling through a rock number like “Working Fulltime” and whispering through a ballad like “Conductor.”
At its core, Tournament of Hearts sounds like the record of a band that is proud of their working-class roots but doesn’t necessarily want to sound pretentious because of them. To understand this, just look at the refrain to “Working Fulltime.” “We won’t be undersold,” sings the whole band in unison, followed by a guitar line that sounds like it was taken from “Sweet Child O’Mine.”
Even though Webb and Julian Casablancas share some similar vocal attributes, the Constantines seem like the anti-Stokes—they have humble beginnings and a more raw understanding of what it means to make music.
None of the songs on Tournament of Hearts are Strokes-y stompers like “National Hum” or “Scoundrel Babes” from the previous album Shine A Light. Instead the Cons trade in their Fugazi-meets-Springsteen jive for more sparse and quiet numbers.
Second track “Hotline Operator” is the best example of this. Doug MacGregor uses a simple snare and hi-hat drumbeat accompanied by some keyboards, subdued guitar strumming and soft keyboard chords in the background, while Webb supplies the hook in the chorus, when he screams “You’re a way/ An unchainer/ You’re a hotline operator” after mumbling through most of the verses.
Despite the prevalence of subdued songs, that doesn’t mean there aren’t good rock tunes on the album—they just aren’t as fast paced as on previous albums. “Love In Fear” has spastic guitar work and a percussive bassline from Dallas Wehrle that could double as a George Clinton funk line. “Lizavetta” is a fractured blues song, with a dirty lead blues riff from other vocalist/ guitarist Steve Lambke.
Lambke’s voice is the opposite of Webb’s—soft and almost soothing. His two songs are a nice change of pace from the rest of the album, in that the vocals are less urgent and more laid back. “Thieves” has a jazzy keyboard riff, minimal guitar strumming and a little bit of saxophone. Lambke whispers through a cryptic urban love song, singing “You said ‘These waves come from California’/ And ‘summer is easy living downtown’/ Thieves in the city/ Bees in the flowerbeds.”
His other song, “Windy Road,” is the album’s haunting final track, with only an acoustic guitar and spacious keyboards to accompany his delicate vocals.
So let’s get back to the Constantines as the anti-Strokes. Sure, the Strokes made rock “fun” again, but they are never weighty or deep. Tournament of Hearts, an album named after, of all things, the Canadian Women’s Curling Championships, is a testament to the Constantines’ ability to make rock music interesting and relevant again in an introspective and poetic way.