What will strike you when you pop in the debut self-titled album from Whitehorse is that it doesn’t sound like a debut. Indeed, Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet, who make up the duo, are solo heavyweights in their own right. They’ve also honed and flaunted their musical chemistry gracing one another’s solo careers. Thus, this album, although their first together as a band, is dynamic, assured and free of giggly uncertainty. Whitehorse, the marriage of songbird and falcon, is where McClelland and Doucet take their ample talents and distinct voices and meld them together into something greater than the parts… greater than the sum… into something great. Many clichés about marriage will be thrown around to describe the couple’s project, and they wouldn’t be contrived. Although Whitehorse contains a track from both of their solo careers (“Passenger 24” and “Broken”), the album is far from just adding new harmonies to old songs.
The 8-track record clocks in at just under 25 minutes, feeling more like a teaser than a full album. Whitehorse is a confident debut filled with roots rockers (“Emerald Isle,” “Broken” and the country-tinged “I’m On Fire”) that you’ll sing along to almost instantly. “Killing Time Is Murder” has a “We Will Rock You”-ish thudding drum groove that will get you clapping and stomping. “Passenger 24,” the McClelland original, has the songstress growling the low notes and howling the high while channelling a mean hitchhiker. The track is sure to become an Americana classic, and is a definite highlight on the album. The record is bookended by intro and outro “Eulogy for Whiskers, Part I/II,” where Doucet and McClelland’s hushed voices bob in and out of a sea of instrumental static.
