City and Colour

One Liner: Surprisingly good blues rock reminiscent of Jeff Buckley

Poster Position: 6

Thoughts:  This is significantly better than I expected it would be.  Really excellent blues-seeped rock.  I think their/his band name is the problem, it makes me think it is going to be super lame pop electronica.  Instead, the tunes remind me of the classic Jeff Buckley sound from Grace, soaked well in a swaggering, bluesy sound.
According to the Spotify bio on the band, this was/is the solo acoustic project of a guy named Dallas Green, who was the singer and guitarist for a band called Alexisonfire and had been in something called Helicon Blue previously.  I've never heard of those bands, and this music doesn't much sound like a "solo acoustic project," but whatever.  The most recent album, 2015's If I Should Go Before You, is great music.  The most listened-to track off of that album right now is "Wasted Love," which fires up 5.4 million listens on Spotify, but the more popular track today is "Lover Come Back," which is right behind in streams with 5.3 million.

Laid back and really great sound.  Also a pretty cool video of the ballet dancing action.  In fact, after listening to that song a few times, I'm hooked.  It just sticks in a small portion of my brain and doesn't let go.
In addition to that 2015 album, he's put out a bunch of albums (2005's Sometimes, 2007's Live, 2008's Bring Me Your Love, 2011's Little Hell, 2013's The Hurry and the Harm, and then a handful of other live things and EPs).  Seems pretty prolific for a guy with another band or two to tend to.  I think the new album is my favorite of the bunch, but Little Hell actually has a fine sound as well. Bring Me Your Love and Sometimes are nice, but now I see why this was called a solo acoustic project.  Those albums definitely stick to the more stripped-down, acoustic sound.  I'd much rather hear the new stuff that is more robust.  But, despite that, his most popular song, by a big fat pile of streams, is "The Girl," from Bring Me Your Love.  It fires up a whopping 21.9 million streams.

Pretty excellent track.  Sounds like a Morrissey track, and I dig the transition move between the acoustic beauty into the stomping sing-along.  I'm sending this to my wife right now with a love note. I think this guy will be pretty fun to see play this stuff live.  I ought to give it a shot.