Vancouver Night's self-titled debut gets a rough start with the choppy "Naikoon Park" and spends the rest of the album trying to make up ground. Sure, Sara Lapsley has a very melodic and excellent voice for this type of recording, but some aspects of the album have to be questioned: the unnecessary guitar solo that she uneasily sings over during "If, By Will," the child-like vocals and Sesame Street subject matter of "Joy Is Like the Rain," and the hokey "Good-bye Mr. Chips." However, there are some redeeming qualities that can be found on this album, like "Final Hour" and "Two Spirited," the latter of which is a classically written pop song that may be worth the price of the CD itself. Perhaps this is the sound they were going for all along. With Lapsley being originally known as the lead singer/songwriter in the riot grrrl band Kreviss and Dan Bejar contributing as guitarist (also of
Destroyer), it might have been hard to get into the swing of things in this genre. Previous to its North American release,
Vancouver Nights was already a hit on the Quattro label in Japan. ~ Jennifer Jones