It's pretty good, but i guess think of it more like casualties of cool, than devin. Very very different.
Funny thing: I liked Casualties. Only drag on that album is that I bought it as part of the crowdfunding campaign when I was otherwise suffering a bit from Devin-fatigue. Another one that probably deserves another attentive listen.
Ghost and Casualties are awesome for chilling out at home, but don't have that kind of "rock your balls off" style that others do that you can crank up in your car. And that is okay. Devin has something for every mood or situation.
Texada Something a bit more upbeat. Starting off like an early OMD track. Then we get a soothing lower pitch Devin vocal, with soothing tones. Then we get a break in the thickness and the song swells up into a beautifully melodic chorus (?) This song doesn't go through any really drastic changes, but it does move into a nice instrumental section with some lovely flute.
Seams A nice acoustic introduces us into this track and another soothing Devin vocal. It would be easy to believe that if you played Deconstruction back to back with Ghost for someone who didn't know Townsend, that they would not believe you when you told them it was the same person.
Infinite Ocean Essentially an instrumental and certainly very much in the ambient domain. This is a marvelous album to chill out to.
As You Were Another soothing Townsend vocal to round out the album and you have pretty much an essential album that should attract any fans of gentle, relaxing music. It may be a little bit too musical to attract the true ambient fan, and I would like a true ambient fan to actually post on the thread about this if any bothered to look.
Casualties of Cool Studio album by Casualties of Cool Released May 14, 2014 Recorded October 2010 – February 2014 Genre Country rock, blues rock, chamber rock, ambient, alternative country Length 73:47 Label HevyDevy Producer Devin Townsend Devin Townsend chronology The Retinal Circus (2013) Casualties of Cool (2014) Z² (2014) Casualties of Cool is the debut album of Canadian country rock duo Casualties of Cool, consisting of Canadian musicians Devin Townsend and Ché Aimee Dorval, released on May 14, 2014. A concept album, it is a musical departure from any of Townsend's previous works, it features country-influenced song with blues rock and ambient influences. A number of guests performed on the album, including Morgan Ågren of Kaipa on drums, Kat Epple of Emerald Web on woodwinds, and Jørgen Munkeby of Shining on saxophone. It was partially funded by the crowdfunding site PledgeMusic.[2][3] The Casualties of Cool project was published officially and went into production in 2012, after Epicloud's release, although Townsend had been working on it since 2010.[4] In September 2012, Townsend stated, "Casualties of Cool is a duo with myself and Ché. It sounds like haunted Johnny Cash songs. Late night music, completely isolated sounding and different than anything I've done. Ché sings most of the leads, and it's probably the truest reflection of who I am in life at this point".[5] Later Townsend mentioned that Casualties of Cool features "music closest to his heart" at this point of his life,[6]referring the album to be "a special one",[7] "one of the most favorite things he's ever done"[8] and "really satisfying to do".[9] Townsend has also said the album is "much needed serious music for him"[10] and that it is an important project he doesn't want to rush.[11][12] In August 2013, Townsend stated Casualties of Cool is done and "heading to mastering",[13] but in early November 2013 he noted that the album was still being mixed.[14] On November 19, 2013, Townsend posted that Casualties of Cool was completed, and next in line was mastering the album and ultimately compiling a bonus disc.[15] The bonus disc contains the leftover material from the main album as well as songs from Ghost 2, the unreleased compilation of leftover tracks from Ghost.[16][17][18] The release date was originally scheduled for April 2014,[19] but was later postponed to May 2014.[20] In February 2014, Townsend mentioned he revisited the mix many times since the album went to mastering.[21] Originally in 2012, Townsend stated that this album would be the sixth and the last album in the Devin Townsend Project series,[22] but in February 2014, he confirmed that Casualties of Cool is its own project, not a part of Devin Townsend Project or his solo material.[23][24] Townsend also planned to start a crowdfunding campaign to support the release of the album.[25] The campaign started on February 22, 2014, through PledgeMusic, and at the same time the release date was confirmed to May 14, 2014.[26] The funding quickly reached its goal, and all additional funds are put directly to Townsend's upcoming projects.[27] Townsend described the story as being about a traveler that is lured to a sentient planet, which feeds on the traveler's fear. The traveler finds solace in an old radio and later an old phonograph. Eventually, he confronts his own fear, and his "force of will to not submit to the fear" liberates a woman held inside the planet, which also frees his own soul.[28] A deluxe version of the album includes an entire bonus disc of outtakes and alternate versions. Most of the material was written with the songs on the main disc, such as "Fight," the original version of "Flight" with Townsend on lead vocals and a different ending. However, "Drench", "Mend", "Perspective", and "Moonshine" are the remaining leftovers of Ghost 2, a planned sequel to Ghost that was scrapped. Other songs intended for Ghost 2 include "Radial Highway" (released on the Contain Usbox set and as a Ghost iTunes bonus track), "Fall" (released through Mackie Gear's SoundCloud),[29] and "Watch You" (released on Contain Us). As well, "Drench" was released on Townsend's SoundCloud,[30] and the first five tracks of Ghost 2 in sequence were released as MP3 bonus tracks with the Century Media preorders of Ghost. The only unreleased studio recordings intended for the album are "Saloon" and "Coming Home", of which the former is available in live recordings on Contain Us and By a Thread - Live in London 2011. An acoustic rendition of "Saloon" is available on Townsend's Unplugged EP. During the pledge drive for Casualties of Cool, a number of different bonuses were made available to anyone that pledged a certain amount of money. One of those bonuses included a "bone-shaped" USB drive that contained two bonus tracks from the Casualties of Cool sessions, along with an alternate track sequence of disc 1 of Casualties of Cool. This also included a text document that included a message from Townsend explaining the alternate track sequence for disc 1. He explains that each track is extended with new ambiance and instrumentals that allow the newly numbered sequence to mesh more fluidly. Among these extended "alternate sequence" tracks is "Gone Is Gone" from Casualties of Cool disc 2, which was originally meant to be included in disc 1 (following "Forgive Me" and prefacing "Broken"). However, due to the data restraints of the CD, the song was unable to make the cut. "Cold Feet" is said to be a by-the-numbers Casualties of Cool B-side, while "Thing" is reminiscent of the Ki sessions, fused with the production quality of Casualties of Cool. While the song explores a certain "outer space" ambiance relative to discs 1 and 2 of Casualties of Cool, it is heavier and more classic Townsend than any other Casualties of Cool song. Dorval is absent from both "Cold Feet" and "Thing". There are also two commentary tracks included covering both discs 1 and 2, totaling out to over 2 hours of commentary. These bonuses were also included in the pledge box set. The album was re-issued worldwide on January 15, 2016 containing an additional DVD with live footage from the 2014 concert at the Union Chapel in London.[31][32] Casualties of Cool was ranked the 7th best record of 2014 by Sputnikmusic, with the comment: "Suffice it to say, this a record which you should hear as soon as you possibly can. It further establishes Devin Townsend as one of today’s most accomplished, and ingenious, musicians." [33] It also received a 5/5 rating on the website ---------------------------- I personally haven't got any of the bonus discs, just the album, so I won't be going through extras that I don't know, but I wanted folks to be aware of them .... so there you go. I really like this album. This album is somewhat like country meets ambient and has a gentle rocking party. It is quite marvelous really and Ché Aimee Dorval adds some great vocals and contrast to further give this album a great quality. What do you think of this album? Tell us anything that comes to mind Cheers
Casualties of Cool is so good. If I can cheat and count the bonus disc , Casualties is a top 5 Devin record in my book. You are missing out if you don't have the bonus disc. The Dunlop Sessions:
Daddy This is a nice track to open the album. We have a cool 2 beat country thing going on with drums and Devin doing his best Scotty Moore on the guitar. I could almost hear Elvis doing a version of this if he was still kicking.
Mountaintop This song brings a focus in as a two beat ambient country track. Starting with a whisper vocal from Devin and Che taking her parts. The two work really well together vocally and I think that is one of the great things about this album. It seems like there was great attention to who did what, although it may well have just been a natural process.
I really feel bad that so little time was spent with this album on release because it's really obvious how much it was a passion project for Devin. As I think I mentioned further back in the thread, I was suffering a bit of Devin fatigue when this came out, though I gladly signed up for the Pledge campaign with the double disc release. I had zero idea about Ghost 2 or any of that, so the bonus disc just ended up being "songs that sound like the main album, but which aren't on it." Definitely going to need to revisit Ghost and this one. I do have to admit that I find the "country" tag attached to this album perplexing. I get where it's coming from, but it's like saying Automatic for the People by R.E.M. is country because there's so much mandolin and acoustic on it. I just don't see it on Casualties, at least not beyond some superficial touches.
I haven't heard that particularly. For me there is a lot of nice little two beat rhythms going on and some of the guitar work sounds country influenced at least. I wouldn't say it is a country album but it sounds to my ears to have pre-seventy five country influences, certainly not the modern stuff ... i don't even think of that as country lol
well i don't know how I managed to do Casualties before Epicloud, but anyhow ..... my apologies. We'll get back to epicloud after we have looked at this.
Flight A particularly beautiful song here. We have a delicate guitar phrase and song lovely vocals from Che.
The Code This may be my favourite off this album. Very effective vocals, a cool guitar phrase, and then the chorus by Dorval comes across brilliantly.
There are moments where the album has an old school almost Johnny Cash-country vibe (not a modern country pop one), so I can sort of see why some would attach that tag to it. That said, that vibe is really only there in a very small spots, so it is not like it dominates the record.
Moon Again we have a nice little train motion two beat, with a really nice little guitar riff and some whisper like Townsend vocals. The whole feel of this is somewhat ethereal and this album really starts to open up into some territory rarely explored in modern music. Another thing to note on this album is the space, the famous Devin wall is not as present and there is certainly reverb, but on this album Devin has used space effectively which is a nice variance.
Pier This track runs straight on from Moon and essentially seems to work as a link track. we have the percussion from the previous track working like a clock or a metronome, and the rhythms change, but never fail to sound like a clock/metronome. It's very nicely executed.
Ether Another track that has that gentle chugging that sits almost thematically through this album. Che has more beautiful vocals to add through this track and to some degree her vocals are one of the highlights of the album.
Hejda Atmospherics sit on top of an almost tribal drum pattern, about halfway through Che has some vocals to add to this semi instrumental piece.
Forgive me This has some delta blues riffs sitting on top of the beat. Another great vocal. This song is very effective. I am loving the space that is allowed on this album, it helps to accentuate the parts in the song. Devin takes the chorus with Che doubling him. This is another great song.
Moon is such a bad ass chill out song. That one sounds really cool when driving in the car after dark.
