Singer/songwriters have been rocketing their way into center stage on an international level in the past couple of years, and this is certainly true of the amazing indie scene developing in Canada at the moment. One of the country’s more provocative voices so happens to be Bobby Dove, and if you haven’t heard Dove’s work yet, you need to check it out with the release of their new album Hopeless Romantic and its namesake lead single. Where Hopeless Romantic’s title track, “Chance in Hell (feat. Jim Cuddy),” “Gas Station Blues” and “Like It or Not I Love You” might sound impossible coming from another singer this season, they seem like genuine poetry from the heart when Dove brings them to us here.

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/bobbydovemusic/

The lead vocal is always the most dominant element from top to bottom in this disc and in the case of “My World’s Getting Smaller,” “Golden Years,” “New Endings New Beginnings,” “Early Morning Funeral” and “Sometimes It’s a Lonely Road,” it’s what makes this player sound divine in their connection with the medium. There’s such an impenetrable bond in play here, advancing the sentiment of the verse with a harmony made pure by a beat in the background, that the relatively barebones music video for the title cut feels lively and rich with vitality. Sometimes less is more, and this LP verifies as much.

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/bobby-dove/01-hopeless-romantic-gmm

Hopeless Romantic is by far one of the best simple indie listens I’ve had the great pleasure of listening to in the past couple of months, and considering it’s by someone I would have regarded as a complete unknown just a couple of weeks ago, that’s nothing to be taken lightly. Bobby Dove is a preeminent force to be reckoned with, and if the clandestine strategy of ascent through the underground pays off, theirs might be a legendary story someday.

John McCall