The Skinny: Climb Aboard the Friendship is a great mellow indie band based out of Regina, Canada. The band consists of Avery Kissick on drums, Darryl Kissick on every other instrument, with Morgan Cann, Meghan Bowman, Brock Prentice, Mike Herrera, Matt Goud, Andy Shauf, Mike Froh, Matt Meehan, Hayden Brown, Melanie Kissick and Chris Oakley all showing up with either vocals or some music on the album itself

The Rating:      What does this mean?

Why: Few Things Really Matter is a beautiful musical voyage with surprising depth and a really polished sound. There is a plethora of vocalists and instruments used on this album and they all fall into place to create one cohesive easy listening album. Yes, I said easy listening. There is no thrashcore metal here; nor any punk rock influences to be found on this album. This is the CD that you listen to if you’re in the mood to add to your playlist that features Straylight Run or The Forecast. Even though there is a lot that goes into this album, it really does have very good flow from song to song. Tracks like “I’ve Sold Out” feature Morgan Cann’s absolutely beautiful voice over acoustic strumming and a faint slide guitar, which then gives way to “Maybe I Should Stop Trying to Figure This Out” which uses faint banjo undertones and a heavy harmonica presence. Immediately following that is the track “Don’t Be Ashamed,” which features a very folky sound with banjo, group vocals, and creative drum recording for its whole 2:19 duration. Even though the majority of the songs, when looked at on an individual level, vary in the combination of vocalists and instruments used, nothing seems out of place and one track seamlessly transitions to the next very well.

Additionally, Few Things Really Matter is one of those special types of albums that we just don’t get anymore. Too often in today’s world of “download a tune and go” people will buy or download individual songs and toss them together on a playlist to listen to as they’re driving, at the gym, or rocking out in general. The music on this album does not lend itself to that dynamic. Rather, Few Things Really Matter is the album you listen to with your best set of headphones, from front to back, uninterrupted, while looking at the artwork and reading the lyric sheet. This album is a voyage, as indicated by the mythological map that is used as album artwork. There’s an intro, ten songs that take you along the journey, an outro, and a bonus track on the physical copy of the CD.

I adore this album. It’s very professionally done with some of the best vocal harmony and smoothest tunes I’ve heard in a long time. Oh, wait. Did I mention this is available for free to download in one archived file from the band’s myspace? Hmm. I think I really should have brought that up by now, as that’s kind of a big deal. So here you have a great mellow album just a mouse-click away. Go brush the dust off of your headphones, ignore your phone, and dedicate the next 40 minutes of your life to independent music. You wont be let down, I promise.

Dont know them? Their CD can fit in with other such albums as: The Forecast’s In the Shadow of Two Gunmen and Straylight Run’s Self-titled.