Sam Roberts
Chemical City
Label: Secret Brain/Fontana

Despite the popularity of their first-pumping debut, We Were Born in a Flame, back in their homeland, Montreal’s Sam Roberts didn’t get the U.S. reception he was hoping for (selling a mere 800 records the first week).

So Roberts and the boys headed to Australia and a small Presbyterian church-turned recording studio to redefine their sound, style and marketing strategy. First step, fire your label. And thus, here comes Chemical City on the group’s very own label.

It’s a noted departure from the debut and definitely more accessible for our stupid American ears. The standout track is “Bridge to Nowhere,” a slow builder with a funkadelic melodrone organ backing the a 70s pop chorus matched with lounge guitar. “Uprising Down Under” is the standard moody ballad here and “The Bootleg Saint” is a fairly crafted song, but neither really lack polish nor grit to make them stand out from other would be Canadian emigres. It’s really all downhill from “Bridge,” and it’s the first track.