Disc #2: Zealand (2)

Artist: Zealand
Album: 2
Released by Zealand in 2002

At some point early in my early University days, I visited a coffee shop in Uxbridge with some friends during summer break. It was probably after a long week of corn picking. The place was called "Beanz" and there was a guy doing some solo acoustic stuff in one of the rooms. He was playing a lot of familiar radio tunes, mostly songs I grew up with, and I really enjoyed it. The sweet corn industry was always very good to me, so I bought one of his CDs. I recall giving it a listen, but it never grew on me.

A year or so later, Christmas break 2004, to be exact, I was having a drink with a friend at "The Lion" in Stouffville. She said that her friend Chris would be playing some songs after the game was over. He came over to talk to us a few times, and I recognized him right away as Zealand. I can't remember if I told him I had one of his CDs or not, but I certainly did not tell him that I had barely listened to it.

But I have now, and for an indee album, it's pretty decent. It's a fairly easy listen, mostly driven by acoustic guitars and a basic four piece rock band, with some innovative sounds from Toronto based guitarist Kurt Swinghammer. If I had to give it a label, I'd say it's like Blue Rodeo with a hangover. Less country but more depressing, if that's even possible.

I did enjoy it, and will probably give it another listen, though it might have to wait until after the experiment. There are way too many discs to get through to do replays at this point.

On THE MIKE JONES SCALE OF DISC AWESOMENESS, Zealand receives a score of:

6

Join me as the experiment continues with Disc #3: Amy Swift (no relation to Taylor, but relation to me)