[review 2004: the honourable mentions]

The Cowboy Junkies have, more often than not, been a dependable old standby. Their late career has been filled with relatively inoffensive and fairly pleasant albums, with one possible exception being 2002’s Open. There the band took a stylistic left turn and tried out some darker material for a good chunk of the album; before they retreated back into the light, the Junkies had put together some fairly interesting bluesy material, the likes of which they’d only hinted at with earlier songs like “A Common Disaster.”

So what do you do for an encore? You apply roughly the same formula, erring on the side of caution. Thus One Soul Now doesn’t have quite the same dark overtones as the last album did. There’s no song that haunts quite like “I Did It All For You,” nothing to match the melancholy of “Upon Still Waters.” In their place, though, are smouldering numbers like “He Will Call You Baby,” a moody piece that would’ve fit right into Open. And the material that more closely resembles the Lay It Down era is pretty good as well. “The Stars Of Our Stars” is the most upbeat song the Cowboy Junkies have done since “Miles From Our Home,” and the title track is a perfect example of what the Junkies do best these days: light country rock with a hint of black.

But after hearing “I Did It All For You,” it’s hard to go back.