Editor’s Note: Our recurring “Albumism Recommends” series aims to shine a bright light on our favorite albums of the past, with an emphasis on the records that arguably never achieved the widespread or sustained attention they rightfully deserve. As you’ll see below, unlike our longer-form feature articles, we’ve intentionally kept the accompanying commentary to a minimum, so as to allow the great music to speak for itself.
We hope that you enjoy discovering (or rediscovering) these musical treasures and if you like what you hear, we encourage you to spread the good word far and wide so that others can experience these under-the-radar classics as well.
ARTIST: Chantal Kreviazuk
TITLE: Colour Moving and Still
RELEASED: October 5, 1999
LABEL: Columbia
NOTABLE TRACKS: “Before You” | “Souls” | “M” | “Far Away”
Back in 1999, during my senior year studying at UCLA, and throughout the year following my graduation before I decided to swap coasts for the brighter lights of New York City, I worked for an LA-based start-up music marketing company called Noize Pollution. Founded and managed by a trio of record industry veterans who shared my insatiable passion for music discovery, the company was contracted by major and independent record labels to conduct grassroots, guerilla-style promotions at concert venues and retail stores across the United States. The majority of the artists and records we worked on during my time with the company fell within the alternative rock and dance/electronic genres, across the likes of Nine Inch Nails (The Fragile), Filter (Title of Record), Papa Roach (Infest), and BT (Movement in Still Life) to name just a handful.
However, among the hundreds of albums that made their way into the company’s project scope during my tenure, there is one that stands out above all of the rest as the record I’m most grateful for being introduced to and most proud for helping to support via our promotional efforts. Chantal Kreviazuk’s Colour Moving and Still.
Kreviazuk’s second studio affair following her critically acclaimed 1996 debut Under These Rocks and Stones, Colour Moving and Still showcases the dynamic singer-songwriter-pianist seizing the full, symbiotic power of her vocal, lyrical and musical gifts. Seldom has an artist packed so many rich melodies, rousing choruses and evocative words into one work, and she pulls it off smashingly within a relatively tight 10-track, 41-minute run time.
A myriad of elements fuel the enduring strength and substance of Colour Moving and Still, but chief among these are the versatility and astounding range of Kreviazuk’s voice, marked by her unique penchant for transforming the subdued into the soaring and making these transitions sound effortless. Additionally, the crystalline production courtesy of Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin, Miranda Lambert, Orville Peck) is inspired, as it propels Kreviazuk’s vocals and the songs’ sparkling arrangements to the forefront.
A quarter-century on from its arrival, Colour Moving and Still still moves me in ways that only a select few other albums can. And I’m forever thankful that I had the chance to experience its charismatic creator perform these stunning songs live at LA’s El Rey Theatre back in the spring of 2000—the visions of her seated on stage at her piano and the sounds emanating from her into the crowd still vivid in my mind all of these years later.
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