Album Review: The Commoners – Restless

Review by Peter Coates – www.facebook.com/InsideEdgePhotography

THE COMMONERS – RESTLESS
Released – 5^th July 2024
Gypsy Soul Records

Canadian Roots-Rock quintet from Toronto, The Commoners have been on something of a rocket ride for the past few years since their critically acclaimed sophomore album Find A Better Way was released in 2022, with a string of tour dates across their homeland and regular tours to the UK. With their highly anticipated third album, Restless now released by Gypsy Soul Records, and yet more tours and festival appearances booked for the remainder of 2024, the pace doesn’t look like slowing anytime soon.

The group was cobbled together over the course of a decade, restructuring and adapting through numerous obstacles to form the unit as it exists today: Chris Medhurst (vocals/guitar), Ben Spiller (bass, piano), Ross Hayes Citrullo (lead guitar), and Adam Cannon (drums). Often joined live by their friend, keyboard maestro Miles Evan Branagh, this is the line up which plays on the new album, joined by Chantal Williams, Nicki Lawrence and Sandra Bouza on the backing vocals.

The whole album demonstrates a legacy of classic southern rock swagger, tinged with the soulful roots of Motown groove masters like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, to deliver a lush, timeless soundscape that has elements of the Black Crowes and A Thousand Horses, with the 1970s classic rock of Free and Bad Company, and lifts the band right up amongst the very best of the current genre of old-school blues rock.

There are a host of bands doing this in the 2020s, and doing it with such skill and authenticity, such as Robert John & The Wreck and the now defunct Thomas Wynn & The Believers, and The Commoners show all the skills and add a rockier southern edge to the sound which I personally love.

The swagger is obvious from the opening riff to Devil Teasin’ Me which kicks off the record, and immediately the listener is transported to an earlier better time, with low-slung Les Pauls, wailing Hammond Organ, and a slightly raspy but warm lead vocal from Chris Medhurst, supported by layers of anthemic backing vocals, while the bass and drums deliver a crisp, punchy beat that holds it all together.

The band takes it up a gear with Shake You Off, with the three ladies providing a joyous counterpoint to Medhurst’s lead vocals, driven along by the sizzling riff from Ross Hayes Citrullo, and the power of Adam Cannon on the drums. This almost has a gospel vibe in terms of the positive energy and excitement of the delivery – with a true rock and soul fusion evident in every bar. The same feel is apparent in The Way I Am, with an added southern rock dimension, highlighted by the guitar breaks and the slick solo – three tracks to open up the album that are all superb examples of the band’s sound.

There is a major change of feel with the title track, Restless, opening with acoustic guitars before a brief electric burst, and a rolling rhythm of piano and guitars that allows Medhurst to show off the passion and intensity of his vocal style, and the contrast between the low-key verses and the soaring chorus, while Citrullo lets rip on the slide guitar behind the multi-layered vocals, and the haunting piano outro that slowly fades to silence.

The fast-paced riffing is back for Gone Without Warning, which is a straight-up rocker, with a down-paced but heavy-hitting chorus that really struts! The guitar solo maintains the slow pace for the first 4 bars, before cranking it up into a Lynyrd Skynyrd / Molly Hatchet boogie that morphs into a raucous southern rock ending. The pace stays high with Who Are You, given some extra fizz by the call and response vocals and some fizzing organ around the solid guitar riff. The middle-eight sees Cannon power up the kit, before a sharp organ solo takes us into the closing chorus, backed by searing lead guitar.

The track that goes slightly off-piste is Body And Soul, which has a sonerous warmth, and a vocal delivery from Medhurst in the verses that is a long way from the blues rocker of the rest of the album. It shows the range of the band, and the vocalist in particular, and allows Citrullo to roam around the fretboard over the throbbing bass and complex drum patterns, and deliver another extraordinary solo. By the time we get to the closing choruses, we are almost back in the realms of the classic southern rock ballad, showing some real cleverness in the song structure.

The three ladies on the vocals are the subtle stars of the ballad, See You Again, with many layers of harmonies behind Medhurst, adding to the warmth of this tribute to drummer Adam’s father who passed away while the band was touring. Too Soon To Know You is another slow-burner of a track, with the signature guitar and organ complementing each other, and a strong voice leading the melody through the chorus and into an intricate mid-section of counter-point bass and drums that builds through the keyboards and vocals into the crescendo of the final chorus.

After a predominantly upbeat collection of blues rock tracks, the album closes with a resonant and reflective acoustic guitar paired with a low key vocal line in All That We Have, a short but powerful coda to what is certainly up there in my top 10 albums of 2024.