Four years after the release of their album The Grey, The Fix is the mature release of Fredericton’s Kill Chicago. More than simply a sophomore effort, the album has the band dishing out their usual brand of protest song, now through the lens of parenthood. They may be rallying against a system that’s thrown a few hard lessons their way, but rather than the piss and vinegar of angry young men we’re seeing the tempered response of someone who now has something more to protect.
Kill Chicago’s songwriter and frontman Greg Webber says, “Having my daughter has made me think about the concept of self-improvement. It seems like we’re always trying to fix some part of ourselves, but when we were kids our concerns were less internal. Why do we see ourselves as broken?”
In many ways The Fix feels like The Grey 2.0, a patch that has updated and expanded on the original. At it’s core are all the same values -Webber is still righteously shaking his fists at the injustices of education, the economy, political alienation and any combination of the above – and in a few places it even sounds like songs are being reworked to adjust to a new viewpoint. It’s as if Webber is offering us a sagely “now that I’ve thought about it, here’s another thing.”
Rather than retreading old material, the highlights of the album are the embellishments they’ve built on what might otherwise be a classic Kill Chicago sound. Where the band have let multi-instrumentalist Dillon Anthony do much of their leg work in fleshing out their sound in the past, The Fix throws us some curve balls that really stand out. It’s the choir on “Moonlight,” the gentle rolls that get cut short by the filthiest solo on “Flying Home,” the genuine singalong chorus on the bittersweet “Have Not Town,” the Eddie Harsch/Chris Robinson dichotomy on “You Don’t Like It” that jumps from the speakers and brings the song to its crescendo, and Matte Robinson’s trumpet on the closing track “Pull Over,” which sounds like it should really be wrapping up a Tarantino film.
If the band set out with a mission of self-improvement, they absolutely nailed it. They’ve stayed true to their sound and pulled out the stops wherever there was room for it in a way that impress fans. It’s too soon to relegate Kill Chicago to the genre of Dad Rock just yet.
Tour Dates:
11.08.19 – Fredericton, NB @ The Capital Complex
11.09.19 – Moncton, NB @ Tide and Boar Gastropub
11.15.19 – Saint John, NB @ Callie’s Pub