This Loud Morning - Deluxe Edition (2011): Music Review

Along with the 2011 release of the 3 year in making album This Loud Morning, came the deluxe edition, including 2 extra songs and a DVD copy of “The Making of This Loud Morning”. The two tracks are named “This Is Not The Last Time” and “Let Me Fall For You”, but I always seem to remember that the original track listing that was released for the deluxe edition included a song named “Sunlight”. Maybe it was one of the two tracks we got just named differently last minute or maybe it’s a completely different song that we did not get to hear. “This Is Not The Last Time” is the track to follow “Rapid Eye Movement” when the deluxe edition is listened to straight through. That’s a rough place to be in and though I have to admit the track did wash over me on the first couple of listens, it wasn’t until later listens that I really started to tune into the song. And this is the problem I have with bonus tracks on albums. If it’s not an acoustic, or demo, live version or cover of a song, and just a completely new studio version of a song it sends out this message that it’s not as good as the songs that made the regular version of the album, and in turn sort of turns me off of the song at first. This is exactly what happened with this song. But after really giving it its due, the song isn’t actually bad at all and I actually think it’s one of the better songs on the entire album. The song kicks off with a drum riff and anthemic sounding guitars. Cook’s vocals and lyrics then slide into the song giving it such a hopeful feeling/message. Cook hits some of his highest notes to towards the end of the song with a very welcome key change, which is maybe why it wasn’t a track that made the final cut of the standard edition of the album, due to how taxing the song could be on Cook’s voice show after show. And interesting fact, I’m pretty sure Cook has only done this song live once and it was in a sound check where a select amount of lucky fans were able to sit in and watch and someone audio recorded the performance and it’s clear that Cook hadn’t practiced it really with flubbed notes and lyrics but it was still pretty cool that he played it for them after they requested it. Overall, I’m now very satisfied with the track and wish it took the place of some lesser tracks on the standard edition. “Let Me Fall For You”, like “This Is Not The Last Time” should have made the final cut of the standard edition of the album. Even on the first listen of the track, completely contradictory to what I said about the last song and bonus tracks, I loved the song and really stood out especially with the end where Cook sings “Let me fall like a stone in the water/Let me fall like a plane out of the sky/Let me crash let me burn my heart out/Let me learn to fly”. The end has a similar sound to an Our Lady Peace song. It’s a beautiful, rock song and Cook delivers the song greatly. Again the song should’ve have make the standard edition of the record. These songs from favourite (1) to least favourite (2):