Kanadia - The Fire That's Tearing Through Our Home

There’s a thread on the subreddit, r/Emo, where users have rattled off a list of records that feature a house on the cover. The independent artist and producer, Katie Dey, unpacked the clumsy visual shorthand in a tweet: “u see a house and ur liek … whoa… what happened there ? something fucked up probably”.

Kanadia, the four-piece alternative rock band out of Oxford, falls prey to a similar impulse with the marketing of their third LP, The Fire That’s Tearing Through Our Home. The absence of subtlety in the title carries through to the album artwork. I can’t determine exactly what I’m looking at (not a house, thankfully), but I know the desired effect. I feel similarly listening to the music, which is at once stylish, familiar, and lacking in personality.

The opening tracks are promising. The foreboding “I’m Falling” broods and warps before bursting into a baroque rock instrumental bridge reminiscent of early Arcade Fire or St. Vincent. It’s an epic setup, smoldering and atmospheric. A sludgier sound and snarling vocal prove successful on “The Ways”, as does the energetic chug of the hook-filled “I Can’t Feel The Sunlight”. The immediacy of later track “Going Nowhere” reminds me of the 2010s indie you hear in a car commercial or on a FIFA World Cup video game soundtrack.

The slower tracks are less successful, the first being the maudlin “How Do You Sleep”. This is immediately followed by “Too Late Now”, whose intro bears unfortunate similarity to “In My Blood” by Shawn Mendes. “Hey”, if the guitars were toned down, could work as a Jackson Maine song from 2018’s A Star is Born – “Hey, [pause] I’m a Lonestar,” he says, after waltzing through the implied Saloon-style doors of a dive bar. I wish I weren’t thinking of these men. There is a more favorable comparison to be made between Bettis’ strong vocal performances across the record and that of Muse frontman, Matt Bellamy. 

By the middle of the album, it’s harder to forgive the lyrical content, a ticker tape of angst-riddled bumper stickers. We’re always “strung out”, “hanging onto the edge”, “on the ropes”, “lost in the night”, “stranded on the shore”, etc. I’m hungering for characters, an anecdote, bolder sonic experimentation, or some specificity of some kind. The lush sound and occasional blistering guitar passages make for an enjoyable listen, but there’s a lack of the unexpected, something to jolt the listener or inspire feeling. Kanadia appears intent on conveying pain, suffering, and depth, but never does so as convincingly as in their earlier work. The final track of their self-titled album, “Anything for a Good Time”, is better suited to the gravitas of this record’s concept – a spare ballad that allows Bettis’ voice to shine and the drama to unfold. It has a glam rock, almost musical theater sensibility. It’s unexpected and affecting. This new sound, so heavy on style, leaves no room for Kanadia’s singular touch to emerge. Whatever that is.

6.4/10