BLACK DOG THERE

The Box were one of the very good Canadian bands back in the 80's with a charming New Wave/Art Pop style of their own.Formed in 1981 by former-Men Without Hats member Jean-Marc Pisapia, the band released four full-length albums between 1984 and 1990, most of them were quite succesful, before disbanding in 1992.In early-00's though Pisapia revived the group with a fresh line-up with Denis Faucher on keyboards, Isabelle Lemay on backing vocals, Martin Lapierre on drums, Francois Bruneau on guitar and Dan Volj on bass and The Box released their fifth release ''Black Dog There'' in 2005 on Universal's Komfy label.

As the days of New Wave had totally faded, Pisapia had to come up with a different style of music.So ''Black Dog There'' could easily be desribed as an Art/Space Rock album with again strong Pop flavors, unfolding around the story of an astronaut, who finds himself stuck in a parallel universe after an explosion of the space shuttle he was crewing, derived from the interest of Pisapia in quantum mechanics and modern physics.Musically the group tries to come up with short, intelligent compositions, but while there is a slight turn to more adventurous themes compared to the past, the album is heavily driven by its concept, thus led by Pisapia's vocal story.It reminds me of CARPTREE at moments without being as dark-sounding, in contrary the album's atmosphere is quite pleasant all the way.Unfortunately this work is quite short (38 minutes) and about half of it is consumed around the concept story with intense vocals supported by little to almost no music background, just some sparse synths, acoustic guitars or accordion.The richer tracks are definitely more interesting, though with limited prog flavor, and sounds a bit like SPOCK'S BEARD more easy-going material, featuring some decent keyboard and guitar ideas.

Listening to this album you get the feeling that The Box were more daring during the 80's than in recent years.Pretty decent tunes, but nothing more than that, the vocals are also good but dominate the album in an extended deegree.For fans of the band and Art Pop-Rock...2.5 stars.