THE HEAVY BLINKERS - Health

Taking inspiration from Frank Sinatra and Bob Gaudio's mournful concept album Watertown and from all things stringed and lush, The Heavy Blinkers' Health is a gorgeous baroque pop album that sits in the same ornate cinematic netherworld as Watertown and Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle.

"For 15 years, the Heavy Blinkers have been delightfully out of step with Halifax’s lively fiddle acts and lo-fi guitar rock bands, a fact never more evident than on Health, a seven-years-in-the-making masterwork of heavily orchestrated pop stacked with symphonic dynamism, lilting, complex vocals and jaw-dropping sweep. Only one founding member remains: the incomparable Jason Michael MacIsaac, who draws influence from soft-focus '60s-'70s singer/songwriters like Harry Nilsson, Burt Bacharach and the Carpenters. But the Blinkers are not MacIsaac alone. David Christensen is behind the dynamic orchestration, and lead vocalists Melanie Stone, Stewart Legere and Jenn Grant handle wistfully optimistic melodies and lyrics about love and war with aplomb. Sondre Lerche and the High Llamas’ Sean O’Hagan also sing lead on a tune each, a testament to the Blinkers’ international cult status." - NOW Magazine