Raine Maida — The Hunter's Lullaby

Taking a break from the rock spectacle of Our Lady Peace, Raine Maida has gone organic with his first full-length solo release. He wisely keeps things economical with a short running time and stays well away from self-indulgent wankery. The instrumentation is purely acoustic, but there's still a tightly wound energy infusing the songs that make it clear he's still Angry About Many Things. Maida works with political and literary themes and his current infatuation with the spoken word genre is evident in his clipped, enunciated vocals and strong narrative threads. "China Doll" takes inspiration from An Inconvenient Truth, while spoken word artist/activist Jared Paul delivers edgy rhymes on "The Less I Know." Maida shows some of his softer, marshmallow centre in the melodic and sweetly sombre "Earthless Girl," and the missus, Chantal Kreviazuk, helps out with tremulous piano lines and muted background vocals on a large majority of the tunes. The Hunter's Lullaby is a refreshing endeavour from a familiar voice.

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