Ryan's Top Ten Albums - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? - The Unicorns


Hi everyone! My name is Ryan Nolan, and in this blog I will be talking about ten of my favorite albums. Music plays a big part in my life as I play guitar and sing in a band, and listen to a wide range of music genre-wise, so it was an easy choice on my blog topic. The albums are not ranked in any concrete order, and I don’t intend to try and review or score any of the albums. Instead I hope to give an overview of the band and the things I enjoy about each album, so maybe everyone reading can find some new music to check out. I just thought it would be neat to ramble about some of my favorite music because it’s fun to talk about!

Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? - The Unicorns

Released 2003 - Genre: Indie Rock, Lo-Fi

This is the first album I have decided to cover on this blog, as it is the album on the list that I have listened to most recently, so it is still fairly fresh in the mind. Released in 2003 by Canadian rock band, The Unicorns, this album presents whimsical synth and guitar-heavy soundscapes throughout, accompanied by introspective lyrics penned by Nicholas Thorburn and Aiden Penner. Despite being the only release from this short-lived indie rock trio, the album led to a wave of new indie-pop and indie-rock records being released later on in the 2000s. But The Unicorns stand apart from their indie contemporaries (bands like The Shins, The Magnetic Fields, or Neutral Milk Hotel), as they present a unique approach to songwriting, ditching the pop song clichés and traditional song structures of the past to create more engaging soundscapes.

While the recordings are undeniably low fidelity, none of that impedes on the listening experience at all, because of how charming and clever the songwriting and lyricism are throughout the 13-track LP. Tracks like “Tuff Ghost,” “Jellybones,” and “Les Os” were especially notable examples of the catchy songwriting The Unicorns became known for. The walking synth lines, vocal harmonies, and varied instrumentation truly set the band apart from other indie rock bands of the time. While never reaching the popularity of other bands in the same vein, even after extensive touring and promotion for the album upon its release, it is undeniable that The Unicorns captured lightning in a bottle with this LP, which remains a staple in the indie-rock genre almost two decades later. I highly recommend checking this one out to anyone looking for a lighthearted rock album that always keeps things fresh.

-Ryan

Tuff Ghost - Here I have attached a link to my favorite song on the LP, the drum and bass groove in the last minute of the track was my favorite moment on the album.

I Was Born A Unicorn (Music Video) - And here is one of the few live videos that exist of the band during their extensive run of shows in the early 2000s

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