The Heavy Blinkers

Trackimage Playbut Trackname Playbut Trackname
Try Telling That To My Baby 00:00 Tools
Filtered Light 00:00 Tools
In The Morning 00:00 Tools
The Night And I Are Still So Young 00:00 Tools
Mother Dear 00:00 Tools
Gentle Strength 00:00 Tools
he heard his song 00:00 Tools
Silver Crown 00:00 Tools
Fall On My Sword 00:00 Tools
Call it a day 00:00 Tools
Don't Get Me Wrong 00:00 Tools
Veranda Celeste 00:00 Tools
Summer won't ask you twice 00:00 Tools
Unseasonably Sad 00:00 Tools
Baby Smile 00:00 Tools
silence your drum 00:00 Tools
It's Finally Done 00:00 Tools
All That's Left Are Waves 00:00 Tools
Far As You Are 00:00 Tools
Easy Living 00:00 Tools
Heartstrings 00:00 Tools
Lazy in Love 00:00 Tools
Child of the Radio 00:00 Tools
Dressing Down 00:00 Tools
Long As I'm Able 00:00 Tools
I Used To Be A Design 00:00 Tools
Perfect Tourists 00:00 Tools
Broken Wave 00:00 Tools
As Long As You Have Your Health 00:00 Tools
god bless hazel 00:00 Tools
You can heal 00:00 Tools
He's Not A Bum 00:00 Tools
Didn't Even Have Time To Dream It 00:00 Tools
Say there honey 00:00 Tools
Helicopter Blues 00:00 Tools
Pennycandy on the brain 00:00 Tools
Crowned Miss Fire Prevention 00:00 Tools
Weight That Can't Be Carried 00:00 Tools
anna karina, I was wrong 00:00 Tools
Instruments of love 00:00 Tools
Happy birthday baby 00:00 Tools
Malmo 00:00 Tools
Rise and glide 00:00 Tools
Chaplin's Christmas 00:00 Tools
Beacon In The Sun 00:00 Tools
From the barnyard 00:00 Tools
Ten little firefighters 00:00 Tools
crystal clear 00:00 Tools
Boxing Day blues 00:00 Tools
The inchworm 00:00 Tools
Marmalade 00:00 Tools
waiting for a riverboat 00:00 Tools
I should be sleeping 00:00 Tools
it sounds better than it sounds 00:00 Tools
Hey! Hey! you! 00:00 Tools
You Took My Breath Away 00:00 Tools
Why Must You Hide Your Light? 00:00 Tools
When You Go 00:00 Tools
The Night and I 00:00 Tools
Everything Is Magic 00:00 Tools
Free Hawaii 00:00 Tools
Deliriously Happy 00:00 Tools
Smile And Show Your Teeth 00:00 Tools
someone died today at the ice capades 00:00 Tools
Something Clean and True 00:00 Tools
Mes Craintes Oubliées 00:00 Tools
Tribute To Sparrow 00:00 Tools
Fishes 00:00 Tools
Chloe's Christmas 00:00 Tools
All Choked Up 00:00 Tools
Canary-Five 00:00 Tools
Dumb Angel 00:00 Tools
Wild Blueberry Eyes 00:00 Tools
As Long As You Have Your Healt 00:00 Tools
End Of Summer Suite (Sweet) 00:00 Tools
Gentle Strength (remix) 00:00 Tools
Three Sleeps 00:00 Tools
Magic 00:00 Tools
Anna Karina I Was Wrong 00:00 Tools
Maplewood 00:00 Tools
mes craintes oubliees 00:00 Tools
Paper Thin Hotel 00:00 Tools
Why Must You Hide Your Light 00:00 Tools
I Could Be Sleeping 00:00 Tools
It Sounds Better Than It Sound 00:00 Tools
Malmö 00:00 Tools
Someone Died Today At The Ice 00:00 Tools
Maplewood (The Heavy Blinkers) 00:00 Tools
Tribute To Sparrow (The Heavy Blinkers) 00:00 Tools
Night and I Are Still So Young 00:00 Tools
Hey Hey You 00:00 Tools
Veranda Celeste (The Heavy Blinkers) 00:00 Tools
Try Tellin' That to My Baby 00:00 Tools
Tribute, Paper Thin Hotel (Leonard Cohen cover) 00:00 Tools
Paper Thin Hotel (Leonard Cohen cover) 00:00 Tools
the night and i are still young 00:00 Tools
End of Summer (Sweet) 00:00 Tools
Something Clean & True 00:00 Tools
Rise & Glide 00:00 Tools
He Heard His 00:00 Tools
Penny Candy On The Brain 00:00 Tools
Summer Wo 00:00 Tools
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On a warm spring day in 2006, over twenty musicians gathered in a studio in the north end of Halifax. Their presence was requested to sing in a choir for the upcoming Heavy Blinkers record. It was a project that had developed an aura of mystery as of late. The band had been playing less and less over the previous months. In addition to that, some of the founding members had begun putting their focus on other projects. Their magnificent last offering The Night and I Are Still So Young earned them international acclaim and a devoted fanbase. Still, basing a touring orchestral pop act out of an isolated Canadian coastal city wasn’t without its challenges. As the choir assembled, they were given the lyrics to an upbeat and ambiguously themed track called “As Long As You Have Your Health.” With crisp voices riding atop a giddy piano line, they delivered a song that evoked the classic pop sound that The Heavy Blinkers had mastered with favorites such as “Try Telling That To My Baby” and “You Can Heal.” It was with the track’s cautiously optimistic lyrics and beaming delivery that the current chapter of The Heavy Blinkers drew to a close. Seven years later, the band’s last remaining founding member, Jason Michael MacIsaac received a wood carved image of a sailor standing alone on the edge of a turbulent sea. The naval officer calmly salutes a ship in the distance as it sinks into the waves. The night glows around him. The image acts as the completed album’s cover. While it’s a tribute to MacIsaac’s father, who served in the military, there is also something else at play. The sailor salutes with his wrong hand. The snow that falls in the evening sky is alive with a surreal light. It is the final piece in a project that has been one constant in almost a decade of change. Following endless sessions, long hours of meticulously arranging instrumental passages, and reworking lyrics, Health was finally done. All of The Heavy Blinkers splintered in various directions following their various exits from the band. Looking for new motivation before he carried on, MacIsaac put new focus on his work with renowned Theatre troupe, Zuppa Theatre. He also began composing music for television and film, including scoring the Thom Fitzgerald film Cloudburst (which features Oscar Award winners Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker). This new format directly informed the way he approached the subsequent Heavy Blinkers material. With that in mind, Health begins with an ending of sorts. The choir that was assembled so many years prior sings a passage that slowly submerges into a mysterious new world. The second half of the track acts as musical gateway into this dimension. Unfamiliar voices guide the way. The once glowing sunshine has dimmed into twilight. Filled with songs of the war, death, and unrequited love, Health is a haunted epic. Written as a musical, the character’s stories are told by vocalists Stewart Legere, Melanie Stone, and Jenn Grant with help from guest contributors Sondre Lerche and The High Llamas’ Sean O’Hagan. It uses works such as Frank Sinatra’s Watertown and Van Dyke Parks’ (who once called the band “the real deal”) Song Cycle as touchstones, but still remains wholly unique. Rolling Stone Magazine once claimed, “The Heavy Blinkers go beyond simple accomplishment, and into the realm of masterwork thanks to the production and pure genius arrangements.” Health holds true to these words. Each song delivers lush new arrangements that revel in all the benefits of studio indulgence. Culled from 30 completed songs, the depth of the project is massive, but the focus is unparalleled. “Anna Karina, I Was Wrong” is a wartime tale that shimmers with harps and foreboding strings. Centred around the somewhat baleful refrain, “This is what you deserve, and I won’t stand in your way,” the song is an apology and a goodbye. It’s a towering work and stands as the thematic core of the record. The song ends with an echo of “My Darling Clementine.” It is the first of many ghosts that haunt the album. These specters eventually take over in the closing, “Everything is Magic.” With echoing laughter and a woozy arrangement, the voices of 40 Heavy Blinkers fans (recorded all over the world) recite a passage that MacIsaac wrote seven years ago which would serve to inspire the project: “In an attempt to spell her name, the illiterate moon gathered up all the stars into her arms, and laid them out over the night sky, forming letters as she went along. Unwittingly, she spelled the word noon instead of moon. The sun instantly filled the sky, and the moon disappeared.” Through the voices and sway of the music, the choir once again resurfaces. This time its voices are distant, submerged. A memory of the beginning now ominously opens the door for a new chapter. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.