Matthew Dunn 
The past few years have been fertile for Canada’s best kept secret, Matthew Dunn. Dropping the ‘Doc’ from the marquee this year, the songwriter and consummate collaborator (MV & EE, Sacred Lamp, The Cosmic Range, Stonegrass) shows no signs of shirking the charms of his solo path. Still draped in a meticulous studio grace, Love Raiders also injects a touch of shagginess into the mix, balancing the gloss of his solo guise with a few bouts of the Cosmic American choogle and psychedelic char that long ago brought him to my speakers. The new record is nothing short of ambitious; a double album’s worth of wonders co-produced with Dunn’s latter-day foil Asher Gould-Murtagh. A self-described “rural-glam opus,” the album blends country, folk, AOR, and, yeah a bit of the platformed crunch, into the kind of gatefold boogie booster that would make Ty Segall blush. Yet, it also serves as the kind of deep-inhale inventory of the past that makes use of the brushes left aside by Young, Clark, and Browne.
At twenty-two tracks, the album’s a lot to light into from the get go, but Dunn starts off strong, leapfrogging the sonorous “Takers” into an eight-minute flex of guitar fry on “Algonquin” that front-loads the fuzz. There’s a half-ton of Americana in the trunk as well, not shaking the high street cowboy bent that’s found its way into his last few solo records. From the simple dawn breaks of “Pour It Down,” to the sundown slides of “Hideaway,” Dunn still knows how to ramble with the best of ‘em. With his whisky and water delivery, MD swirls the speakers like Veedon Fleece covered by JJ Cale. The smooth moments might dominate, but the breadth of the album allows for a few more rumpled rippers than usual. There’s always one in the mix, a cut that lets Dunn run the serrated side of his oeuvre across the listener, but here, with J Mascis along for the ride, the air gets pungent on “Tally Ho!,” “Algonquin,” and “The Storm.” His solo run has been impeccable, but there’s a feeling that even with the past few records as prologue, this is Dunn starting to fully embrace the grandeur he’s been seeking from his Northern perch.
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