MEAN, MEAN PRIDE Go Whole Hog Fearless as Ever
Crown Lands into Prog,
CODY BOWLES AND KEVIN COMEAU AFFIRM THAT walking the path to progressive rock preeminence was always their plan. As Crown Lands, the duo first gained a foothold in the Canadian rock landscape with a spirited meld of blues, folk and psych styles, shaped by the genre’s modern players and past masters alike. A perceptible prog influence was always there, though; it was felt in the keyboard textures of 2017’s Dave Cobb-produced EP Rise over Run, the Roger Dean-esque fantasy landscape that covers 2020’s Wayward Flyers Vol. 1, and the well-reported love of the homegrown power trio at the core of their friendship and musical partnership: Rush.
On their sophomore LP, Fearless, drummer-vocalist Bowles and multi-intrusmentalist Comeau lean into prog persuasion harder than ever, mining the style’s past from the present to sonically illustrate future-set sci-fi songwriting that remains applicable to our day-to-day — and that’s just the album’s 18-minute opening opus, “Starlifter: Fearless Pt. II.”
“What I really like about that specific flavour, or era, of prog is how organic it still feels; how it still feels live in a room, but also feels like there’s heart in it, you know?” Bowles expresses. “A lot of the more modern technical stuff, it’s incredible. But sometimes, it feels like that heart is missing, or it’s over-produced. That element is this almost unquantifiable thing, but it’s something that I strive for in our music — it’s inspiring.”
Across the remaining eight tracks, Crown Lands flash their continually sharpened pop chops, improved instrumentalism and driven arrangements, and tease toward other sonic worlds they’ve explored outside the band. It’s a determined musical undertaking rooted in their love of prog’s vaunted glory days.
Comeau reflects on how he and Bowles briefly dabbled in “really extended progressive music” in a prior band, noting, “Our ambitions were always further than our actual technical ability, and they still are, but at that point it was very pronounced. With Crown Lands, we made a conscious decision to strip everything back to something we could tour in a small vehicle as well.”
Now, the two have come howlin’ back in the opposite direction on the stage and in the studio. Over four decades on from Geddy Lee singing, “Catch the spirit,” Crown Lands have reached out and seized it.