Additional personnel: Izabella Budai (flute); Michael Barth, Julie Penner (trumpet); Tyler Greenleaf (trombone); Sean Dealy (snare drum).

The Weakerthans never broke up, but simply took four years to record REUNION TOUR--their fourth full-length and second for Epitaph Records. REUNION TOUR features all the hallmarks that have made this band one of Canada's finest: hook-laden songs confident in their instrumental economy and structural directness; literate lyrics, and melodies that lend the simple musical backdrops intelligence and weight. The album was recorded in a factory in a Manitoba winter during off-hours, but you'd never know it, as these songs smolder with a passion and wit that belies their frigid beginnings.

The Weakerthans never broke up, but simply took four years to record REUNION TOUR--their fourth full-length and second for Epitaph Records. REUNION TOUR features all the hallmarks that have made this band one of Canada's finest: hook-laden songs confident in their instrumental economy and structural directness; literate lyrics, and melodies that lend the simple musical backdrops intelligence and weight. The album was recorded in a factory in a Manitoba winter during off-hours, but you'd never know it, as these songs smolder with a passion and wit that belies their frigid beginnings.

The Weakerthans have carved out a nice little name for themselves through the consistent creation of deceptively simple indie pop. Reunion Tour continues that tradition, but is clearer, richer, and more assured. As usual, the songs revolve around the everyday to embrace the small parts that make moments matter -- the awkward goodbyes, hands held tight, backward glances, smudges on the wall, minutes ticked by. It's in these understated details that the gifted John Samson eternally dwells bathed in self-awareness, masterfully turning insecurities into poetry with charm and ease. He does so over soft guitars, brushed percussion, and light keyboards that delightfully swirl and embrace each silky syllable with heart and grace. Austere horns lament over a delicately plucked guitar in "Bigfoot!," while Samson's heart sits "pumping pour mini bar" during the bright rush-hour hustle of "Relative Surplus Value." Every song sounds like the Weakerthans wrote it specifically for themselves and the listener just to enjoy together. Hooks are always present, but subtle, unassumingly driving the achingly tender "Sun in an Empty Room" -- whose repetition of the title conjures up ghosts and memories of homes left behind -- and the rhythmic stomp of "Tournament of Hearts." There's such a special intimacy surrounding the Weakerthans, such rich warmth, that you can feel the 11-song cycle of Reunion Tour deep inside your stomach like the anxious butterflies of a new romance. But this isn't a new, fleeting love affair -- at album number four, it's just the Weakerthans doing what they do best. ~ Corey Apar