The Provincial Archive - It's All Shaken Wonder (2014) Lossless

Having shared an EP a couple of months ago, Edmonton folkies the Provincial Archive are following it with a full-length for Black Box Music. Before It's All Shaken Wonder drops on August 19, it's available to stream here on Exclaim.ca.

The 10-song collection kicks off with "Daisy Garden," a sweeping folk number that also appeared on the group's Hide Like a Secret EP. Songs like "Full of Water," "The Market" and "Bad Kids" are more rocking and electrified. Elsewhere, "Land Machines" is a quiet acoustic number, "Lay the Keel" highlights rustic banjo, and "The Lake" centres on darkly jazzy piano.

It's All Shaken Wonder marks the band's first effort to be recorded in a proper studio. As singer/guitarist Craig Schram explained: "In the past we recorded exclusively at home with all of the time and comforts that it affords. The studio puts some constraints around us and made it more important for us to examine all of our ideas in rehearsal before getting in to record… I think it made everything that we did, from writing to production, more thoughtful." By Alex Hudson