Rae Spoon

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Rae Spoon

Rae Spoon "I Can't Keep All Of Our Secrets" album

- Release date : January 2012 -

I Can't Keep All Of Our Secrets is an album by Rae Spoon, released on January 10, 2012. The album was made with input from electro whizzes Alex Decoupigny and Lynne T (aka Fruity Frankie of Montreal's Lesbians on Ecstasy). Much of it was composed using a computer and showcases a dance-floor-friendly sound.

"I know that, in an album exploring electronic music, I'm not going to be the strongest person technically, because it's not what I've been doing for the last ten years," Spoon told Exclaim!. "I thought that songwriting and singing is what I could bring to it. I haven't heard a lot of folk song-type electronic songs, so I was trying to bring the two together."

"I Can't Keep All Of Our Secrets" album tracks and lyrics

"I Can't Keep All Of Our Secrets" album reviews

Rae Spoon’s explorations into electro-pop continue to pay off with the musician’s sixth album, I Can’t Keep All Of Our Secrets. Spoon keeps a folk/alt-country sensibility as a powerful lyricist, but complements and enhances that strength with hooks and beats that have grown more and more sophisticated over these last three albums.

I Can‘t Keep All Of Our Secrets is a meditation on the sudden death of a close friend. Spoon takes us through some dark places – the bottom of the sea on “Ocean Blue” – as Rae works through the grief. “Are you jealous of the dead?” asks Spoon over a tense and menacing guitar riff, in a voice electronically processed into a vibrato. “They are written and punctuated, and we are messy and unplanned.”

Ultimately, though, I Can’t Keep All Of Our Secrets resolves itself into a celebration of the Messy and Unplanned. “Ghost of a Boy” starts off chopped and screwed, then cleans up for the vocal part, but then bleeds back into distortion around the edges of each verse. It’s a new sound for Spoon and it’s a great fit.

“Promises” is a straight-up rock song. “London Destroyer” allows Spoon to rage against the place that took a friend. It finishes with a devastating but quintessentially Canadian line: “Green northern lights off of the wing of my plane /I flew to London, but it was too late.” Spoon also delivers a solid slow-dance ballad on “When I Said There Was an End to Love I Was Lying”.

I Can‘t Keep All Of Our Secrets brings a sharp focus to Rae Spoon’s considerable chops as a songwriter even as the artist finds new range as a musician.

*** by Emmet Matheson, Prairie Dog Magazine ***

As with a much of Rae Spoon’s fascinating backstory, news that the Calgary-born singer-songwriter’s latest release was inspired by the death of a friend may provide a certain context for the shadows of grief and guilt that creep into this stunning 10-song disc. But having this information is hardly essential for appreciating what is basically a brilliant electro-pop record. Now three albums into what has been one of the more intriguing musical transformations in recent Canadian music, the transgendered artist appears to be fully committed to the dance-electronic sounds that first began replacing the twang in 2008′s Superioryouareinferior. But Spoon always maintains a singer-songwriter sensibility that aims for connection without abandoning personal vision. Spoon returns to themes of loss, contrition and identity, wraps it all in memorable melodies and expertly balances expansive, radio-ready pop such as pulsing opener “Ocean Blue” and gorgeous ballad “When I Said There Was An End to Love I Was Lying,” with more off-kilter sounds and grooves. “Curse on Us” takes on a quiet reggae vibe, “London Destroyer” toys with primitive Autotune effects and the mournful “Ghost of A Boy” features unsettling backup vocals that sound like Jandek channelling Marvin Gaye. It all works, making I Can’t Keep All of Our Secrets one of the year’s earliest gems.

*** by Eric Volmers, Calgary Herald ***