Under Review

Rock Plaza Central

At The Moment Of Our Most Needing

Paperbag Records

Review By Nathan Pike

Sometimes an artist creates simply out of the need to express, not expecting people to take the time to notice let alone appreciate their work. Such was the case when Rock Plaza Central released 2007’s Are We Not Horses; an album that quickly gained in popularity and allowed for some very favourable reviews and lip service from industry biggies, such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork.

At The Moment Of Our Most Needing is the fourth release by Rock Plaza Central. Largely inspired by the William Faulkner novel Light In August and described by founder/singer/novelist Chris Eaton as a sort of love song to one of the novel’s central characters, the album can be best described as a journey. But it’s hard not to be intrigued even a little bit by RPC’s music that sounds as if it has been written and recorded by slightly crazed and terribly drunk hillbilly rockers with a penchant for Neutral Milk Hotel, Songs: Ohia and Thee Silver Mount Zion Orchestra.

Songs like “A Mule on Fire” and “The Hot Blind Earth” show influences steeped in big rock while “The Wrong Side of the Right” sounds as if it could have been recorded with deep ‘30s American folk music in mind. This is not your typical album. Highly inventive, intelligent and fun to listen to, At The Moment Of Our Most Needing will stick to you like glue and is indeed a journey that you will not soon forget.