Compiling songs from their earliest and present catalog North East Bistro hand has selected songs from 1995 to 2011 to complete their compilation album titled Committed.

 While taking a listen to their album you will notice how a few of the songs have a marginally different sound to their counter parts. This to me adds a quite a bit of depth to the career of North East Bistro. A couple of my favourite songs right from the first listen was “Pornstar Perfume” and “Die Young”. With a different approach that I think North East Bistro added two instrumental songs one which closes off the album.

To start off the album the North East Bistro choose “Reprieve”, having a non English spoken word intro almost turned me off of the song at the beginning but I thought I should still listen to the song and I am glad that I did. One of my favourite aspects of the song is the horn section in the song. They blend in really nice and do not overshadow any of the other instruments but make an appearance where it is necessary. Also following the opening vocal intro there is a deep sounding acoustic intro which is met by the horns after a few chords. The combination of Caro’s soft female lead vocals and Ian’s rough to medium sounding vocals really made the album sound out. I really enjoyed how Ian seems to add the rough/ harsh sounding vocals to certain lines and moments in the song rather than continue his vocals that way throughout the song. About halfway through the song takes a different turns and slows right down with a Metallica like approach, it only lasts for about thirty seconds but does have a major impact on the song, the song does stay at the slower tempo for the remainder of the song.

“Pornstar Perfume” lands third on the album. The horns and guitars greet your ears with a upbeat tempo. The darker sides of Ian’s vocals stray away in this song yet are replaced with a pop/ rock sounding vocals instead. Caro makes small addition to the vocals as well adding a whispering sound and   small amount of backing vocals to the track. The bass guitar really makes a point to stand out in this song which in turn adds quite a bit of backbone to the song. I found the horn section was a little divided in the song which however to me was in favour of the song, especially during the ending of the song as it gave your ears more than one instrument to keep your ears focused on.

 Following “Pornstar Perfume” is “Die Young”, my second favourite song from the album. With another fast upbeat Tempo “Die Young” I was divided which song I ould choose as a favourite so I am just going keep it as a tie between the two songs. To start of the song our ears are hit with a somewhat high frequency amp sound with a sweet sounding drum intro. The song is almost turned over to the guitars and drums throughout the songs with the horns taking a backing role in the song. The combination of lead vocals especially in the chorus gets the point of the song across a little bit more than if they were left to just Ian singing the lyrics. Caro does add a little to the song with her vocals but again mostly to accompany Ian on lead vocals. The song doesn’t go without an instrumental break in the song as well as the song finishes with about two minutes without any vocals. What I like the most about the instrumental breaks is the fact that they sound as if they belong in the song and do not sound forced upon or added just to make the song longer in length. I was a little surprised by the instrumental ending to the song rather than just have the song finish shortly after the lyrics finish.

You can pick up your copy of Committed by visiting www.nebmtl.com