Great Big Sea

By Ryan Belbin

Safe Upon The Shore Warner Folk Rock

B+

After seventeen years of sea shanties with a pop flair, Alan Doyle, Séan McCann, and Bob Hallett – St. John’s group Great Big Sea – are anything but safe upon the shore. Born on the road and in the studio in New Orleans, the band’s tenth studio album manages to dip its oars in unfamiliar waters while keeping the coastline in sight.

If 2008’s Fortune’s Favour had the most full-bodied pop-rock sound to date, Safe Upon The Shore aims for an Americana feel, and the result is mixed. On the one hand, “Dear Home Town” has one of the best lyrical structures of any GBS song, utilizing harmonica and horns for a tune with a great hook. However, songs like “Good People,” a laid-back country song, lack ambition and depth and are more about surprising audiences than impressing them.

Longtime fans of Great Big Sea may be startled by the new direction, but Safe Upon The Shore does not feel awkward or even experimental, but rather a collaboration of styles and voices that have provided consistent inspiration. Behind the horns, banjos, harmonicas, and disparate styles, this is still Great Big Sea at the core. “Nothing but a Song,” the leading single from the album, is “Ordinary Day” all grown up, while “Road to Ruin” may be about a hazy night under the influence of the old black rum.

The downside of Safe Upon The Shore, however, is that while the individual songs are interesting, as a collection there is no uniform musical direction. Doyle sings bluegrass on “Hit the Ground and Run,” McCann screams on the Led Zeppelin cover “Gallows Pole,” and Hallett even does a lullaby duet on “Follow Me Back.” Some will love the slick roots-rock vibe, while others will remain skeptical.

When Doyle sings, with some regret, “dear home town, I never meant to let you down, when I sold my soul for a song,” we believe in the aching emotions that a touring band has to grapple with, but we also understand that they have no plans to stop. Safe Upon The Shore could not have been released earlier in Great Big Sea’s career, because that is precisely what it is about: the band growing up together and seeing the world, embracing its pleasures and pains, while keeping the heart of this rocky island on their shoulders.

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