Review: Whitehorse- 'All I Want Is All of It'

Whitehorse has been one of the more mercurial bands on the roots music scene. Over eight albums, the husband and wife duo of Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland have shown respectable range. So what happens when you take such an experimental duo and stick them in a 19th-century farmhouse studio to make a new album? All I Want Is All of It, an album that is, in some ways, a back-to-basics return to their early folk rock romanticism and in others an experimental delve into folk rock's hidden backroads.

Doucet and McClelland certainly took inspiration from their rural setting. Known for their intricate live looping that lets two sound like a full band, Whitehorse took a more DIY approach on All I Want Is All of It. Running with first takes rather than editing in “perfection.” Leaving in organic environmental sounds rather than overdubbing. It certainly didn't help that they brought together a crack band to flesh out the sound organically. The band for the album includes Jimmy Bowskill on bass, John Obercian and Fred Eltringham on drums, Vincent Jones on keys, and Melissa and Luke's son Jimi on Wurlitzer and Hammond organs.

Musically, the album hits right out of the gate with its best track, “2155.” A lick-heavy venture into a future that is both tragic (“are the maples carbon fiber? / your blue eyes holographic”) and satisfying (“conspiracies crumble / the ballots never rigged”, “the refugees fly first class / never wash up on the shore”). In addition to Doucet's excellent guitar work, this is his best vocal performance on the album, though McClelland gives him a run with some soaring, almost screaming harmonies.

Another feat of guitar heroics by Doucet is “Fire.” The tale of a woman who is “hotter than Hamilton steel,” Doucet's guitar almost “sings” the chorus during the solos. “I may be a thief / but I ain't no liar,” Doucet wails. “Girl from where I stand / you're fire.”

Don't let that make you think McClelland doesn't get her time to shine on All I Want Is All of It. Another highlight track, “Bullet in the Chamber,” shows off her considerable vocal skills. There's a bitterness in the song's lyrics that McClelland nails perfectly in her delivery. When she growls “'cause you don't like me / like you want her/you'd take a bullet / just to haunt her,” all of the pain of that line is present in every syllable.

Another McClelland showpiece is “Lighthouse.” It's the song that most fits the simplicity the band was going for in their 19th-century farmhouse. A gentle guitar strum accompanies McClelland as she croons in a voice that lulls you.

Of course, when you call your album All I Want Is All of It, you've got to have a little bit of greed and avarice in there somewhere, and that is brought forth on “I Want the Milk.” A deceivingly understated duet vocal makes the greed on display almost like a secret, something to be hidden. You can certainly see signs of the modern billionaire class when they sing “I want the milk / the money from the milk / and the milkmaid” later bragging “as I say / not as I do/eat your cake / and have it too.”

If this is what happens when Whitehorse goes to ground, here's hoping they do it again, although that seems unlikely from a band prone to reinventing itself on every album. Whatever their next step may be, today we're left with a wholly satisfying addition to their catalog in All I Want Is All of It.