Artist: Amy Millan When: October 17th, 2025 Where: Club Saw, Ottawa Context: I’ve seen Stars live five times and Broken Social Scene twice* but it had been quite a while since I’d seen either one. However, this wasn’t the reason why I really wanted to see Amy Millan, even though I do often lean towards the songs she sings with Stars. I had never seen her play live solo, just never got the chance, even though I had enjoyed her two previously released solo albums. Before buying the ticket, I had only given her newest album, “I went to find you”, a cursory listen, only becoming much more familiar with it in the week leading up to the show. Having said all this, I still found myself surprised at how much I enjoyed Amy Millan’s performance. Her extremely talented backing band included Christine Bougie** (guitar and lap steel), Stefan Schneider*** (drums), as well as fellow Stars members Chris McCarron (guitar) and her partner Evan Cranley (trombone and percussion), and she brought her friend Jenny Whiteley up onstage mid-set to duet on “Baby I”****. But it was Millan herself who lit up the stage, not only with the lovely, lilting, and soft touch on vocals that we’ve come to know and love, but with her in-between song banter, proving herself to be humble and hilarious and human. It was such that she could have played anything and we would have been with her the whole way. But she pleased Stars fans with a couple of their tunes, including a lovely solo performance of “Ageless beauty”, a personal fave, and with the exception of a Weeping Tile/Sarah Harmer cover, the rest of her set was solo material, mostly from that new album, performed so beautifully that it has infinitely risen in my esteem. Point of reference song: “The overpass”
Amy Millan close up and personalChris McCarron and his headband on guitarStefan Schneider on drumsEvan Cranley with his tromboneChristine Bougie rocking the guitarAmy dueting with Jenny WhiteleyEvan on the percussion Chris McCarron and his game faceAmy and StefanRocking out
*Both times with Amy Millan
**Has performed with Shania Twain and Bahamas.
***Has performed with Owen Pallett, Belle Orchestre, among others.
****A song Whiteley had written and Millan had covered on her first solo album, “Honey from the tombs”.
Ever since pioneering shoegaze rock band, Ride, called it quits rather spectacularly back in 1995, I’d been firmly planted in camp Mark Gardener in terms of following the post-breakup careers of the two warring principal songwriters and driving forces behind the band. I’d always preferred his voice and with the exception of “Vapour trail“, enjoyed far more the songs he led with Ride. I always thought he’d do greater things. Who knew the opposite would turn out to be true?
Sure, Gardener was the first of the two to record and release a solo album by a long shot. However, Bell seemed to get back on the horse quicker, forming Hurricane #1 in 1996, a band of whom I’ve still only heard a few tracks but who released a couple of reasonably successful albums before breaking up a few years later*. Shortly after that, he was recruited by the Gallagher brothers to replace founding Oasis member Guigsy, a job for which he had to quickly learn the bass. He stuck with them until their rude implosion a decade later** and stayed on with Liam for a couple of albums under the Beady Eye moniker. Fans (and readers of this blog) will know that Ride successfully reunited just over ten years ago and not only toured but have released three amazing new albums that build beautifully on their legacy. There’s also been a host of other collaborations and projects that I know little about or only heard tell of so I won’t list them, but know Mr Bell has been quite active indeed.
And in the midst of all this productivity, Andy Bell has been writing, recording and tinkering with songs, a step away from all of these projects, refining and honing sounds, lyrics and melodies. Apparently, “The view from halfway down” became something more than just a ragtag collection of song snippets shortly after David Bowie’s death, this event lighting a fire under Bell’s comfy chair. As a debut solo album, it works perfectly, recognizable enough as Andy Bell but different enough to set it apart from his other projects. And, yeah, some excellent tracks here.
“If you’re searching for meaning
Or a secret worth revealing
And you’re missing the feeling
Of connection, a reflection back from above
You’re ready to ride the first wave of love”
“Love comes in waves” is the opening number and the lead single from the album, a clarion call, a demand for attention. It’s frenetic jangling guitars repeating and not giving up, pounding it in to you, dancing up and down your spine. Meanwhile, the drums just chug along, breathless and immovable, like the unbreakable ocean that he’s comparing with love. A thing of beauty that creates a space that I would definitely want to revisit again and again, sometimes dancing, sometime just being.
*Hurricane #1 was re-formed by cofounder Alex Lowe without Bell and really, the rest of the original lineup in 2014.
**Of course, he was asked to join them on their wildly successful reunion tour this past summer/fall as well.
For the rest of the Best tunes of 2020 list, click here.
Fifteen years ago or so, I was going out to the cinemas semi-regularly with a group of guys from work. All four of us were happily married but the films we often went to were ones that our wives would likely not have been interested in seeing so they gladly allowed us these nights out with the guys. The movies were all big budget action pieces that exploded off the screen, many were part of this MCU group of films that were just starting to get off the ground. To be honest, I wasn’t super familiar with all of the comic books that these films were based off of, but for me the actual content of the films were secondary, I enjoyed the nights out, the laughs, the goofiness, the popcorn and junk food, and the joy of being in the cinema.
One such night, we went out to see the film “Sucker punch”. I’m not sure which of the other three suggested it, perhaps all of them, but I had no idea what I was getting into, nor had I read anything about or seen any teaser trailers. Without the weight of any expectations, I had a blast watching the film and was surprised afterwards to find I was the only one of us that enjoyed it* and in truth, might’ve been the only one in the world that didn’t hate it based on all the critical panning it received.
As poorly reviewed as the film was, it did receive some kudos for its visual effects and of course, its soundtrack was also universally loved, which is why we are here today. The nine tracks are a mix of covers and mash ups and remixes (oh my). The songs were used at key points in the film to add another layer to the fantasies of the film’s characters, blasts of technicolor musical numbers akin to the music video for Björk’s “Oh so quiet”. Indeed, many of the songs included vocal performances by the film’s stars. It’s probably one of my favourite ever soundtracks for how creates a specific feeling and atmosphere, reinventing the songs used specifically for this purpose.
The seventh of the nine is our song for today’s list and it features the film’s star Emily Browning dueting with Israeli-Romanian singer/songwriter Yoav on the Pixies classic, “Where is my mind?”
I first came across Yoav with his own cover of the track and liked the sound of it so much I checked out the rest of his debut album, “Charmed and strange”, which is similarly charming with his Cat Stevens vocals and use of acoustic guitar in inventive ways to create a sort of dance pop sound. I don’t know how he became involved with the “Sucker punch” soundtrack but it sounds as if his original cover became the springboard from which he and Emily Browning leapt, trading vocals over a miasma of industrial beats, feedback, and sonic screams. It builds from a place of quiet, an almost forgotten corner of the mind, each singer adding distinct voices from distinct experiences, and then the guitars kick in and the beat picks up, everything continuing to build until the machine guns fire, the full orchestra finale, and fireworks galore.
The Pixies original was featured on their debut album, 1988’s “Surfer rosa”, penned by frontman Frank Black (or Black Francis), a typically Pixie weirdo number that saw a resurgence went it was used at the end of the 1999 film, “Fight club”. It has become an anthem for the disaffected ever since and is a favourite at their live shows, which they perform in an unconventional way, kind of like a mix of “do I have to?” and “since I have to, I’m going to rock the hell out of it”.
The Pixies original exemplifies the eccentric punk edge of their early days and foreshadows where music will head in the 90s, slightly off-kilter guitar rock that was antithetical to the glam metal of the 80s. The cover is one and a half times longer and the mashup explosions exemplify what was popular at the beginning of the 2000s. Two very different sounds and each with very different moods and meanings, despite there being no change in the lyrics.
Both are fantastic and though the cover ‘gives’ just a little bit more** than the original and does everything a good cover should, I can’t in good conscience pick it over the Pixies’ original. Original being the operative word.
Cover:
Original:
*Interesting then, that this was the last film we would go out to see as a group, and often when we would see each other at work over the years, the film would be mentioned as a sort of inside joke.
**I always feel lyrics Pixies tracks could easily be longer but they always end just before they overstay their welcome.
For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.
My (life in) music lists 