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I’ve known about Guster for some time. The hardened Barenaked Ladies fan will know them as they have played with BNL a few times, and accompanied them on the Ships and Dips cruise, as well as had various working relationships with each other over the years.

I’ve always meant to look into them more, and find out more about the band and their music. There’s a lot of common ground in terms of the fan base, and the music genre, so I thought I’d have to have a look. The only Guster song I’d (knowingly) heard was from an album called For the Kids, a charity album produced a few years back by Nettwerk for a VH1 kids charity. The album features covers (and some originals I think) of some well known songs by various well known artists, including BNL and Guster.

I bought For the Kids recently, and was listening to the Guster track, I’ve Got To Be Clean and it stuck me how good it was. So I duly went off to Amazon and picked up a copy of Guster’s latest, Ganging Up On The Sun.

I’m quite impressed with it. It’s the folk-rock jamboree I was hoping for. More folk than rock I think, but that’s nice as BNL are more rock than folk these days, so I can see how they balance each other out. There’s plenty of jangly guitars, mandolin bouncing in and out, and VERY tight vocal harmonies. If there’s something I do love, it’s good harmonies. They catch my ear big-time.

Must say, I look forward to getting some more Guster albums.

I mentioned a few weeks ago eagerly awaiting the Cherry Ghost album, and it has since arrived. I’ve listened to it a few times, and it’s definitely a grower. There’s the standout tracks – Mathematics and People Help The People, but the rest don’t stand up as much as say ‘LISTEN TO ME!!!’ in quite the same way. Still, there’s a good vibe on this album. It’s good listening music. I’ve listened to it in the car a couple of times, and it doesn’t suit that environment well. It’s better to be listened to at home, or on headphones in a quiet place (like at work). Dead Man’s Suit and False Alarm are looking to be other favourites though. Mountain Bird also.

I also recently got the Tiny Dancers album. This is a good album also. Unfortunately, I’ve mostly listened to it on my iPod, so I’ve yet to make much of a distinction between the tracks – a lot flow into each other a little too easily. That said, they’re all in a good place, so it’s not a bad thing necessarily. Hannah, We Know is a great song. Ashes and Diamonds is also good as it grows from something quiet to something quite large toward the end. I’d quite like to see Tiny Dancers live, as I understand they do a good live show.

All things considered though, these are two good albums!  And, even better, both are home-grown bands.