Kandle & Kendel Carson - Neil Young: Birds EP (2021)

We swooned over Kandle‘s Bond-inspired ‘Lock & Load’ this past November, only to be further charmed by her wistful, melancholy holiday track ‘Christmas Mourn’ in December. But the Montreal songstress has quickly followed up with a surprise collab with singer/violinist – and fellow Canadian – Kendel Carson, who is perhaps better known as a member of The Paperboys.

Fascinatingly, the pair have teamed up to release a stark, stripped-down collection of Neil Young covers, including a somber, haunted version of ‘The Needle and the Damage Done,’ as well as an absolutely enchanting take on ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart.’ (Though as we’ve decisively learned over the last few years, sometimes politics can do that too.) But the genuine standout is an update of the lesser known track ‘Birds,’ for which they have also just released a rather shiver-inducing “live from our living room” video.

Young’s lyrics, of course, were all about letting go and walking away from a fading love. Yet for all the heartbreak in those lines, Kendel and Kandle’s version can surely also be taken as a poignant metaphor for the arrival of a new year – 2021 – which we all hope will bring positive change, reasons for optimism, and most of all much-needed renewal.

Kandle explains of the inspiration for the project, “We wanted to be somewhere else for a spell, and it was granted by whiskey, reverb and six beautiful, dark tunes from the early ’70s. We boarded his silver spaceship looking for respite from the pandemic…”