Serena Ryder - If Your Memory Serves You Well

For her second full-length, and major-label debut, Canadian singer Serena Ryder chose to mainly focus on the songs of others, specifically, other Canadians, writing just three of the tracks on If Your Memory Serves You Well. Those three tracks, in fact, happen to be the weakest -- most predictable, with the most clichéd lyrics and progressions, and the ones on which the super-clean production seems the most forced -- on the entire album. The rest of it, however, ranging from Paul Anka's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" to a sultry, nighttime version of The Lovin' Spoonful's "Coconut Grove" (co-writer and bandmember Zal Yanovsky was from Toronto) to The Band's great "This Wheel's on Fire" (from which the title of the album was taken), are done well, keeping the original song intact while still adding new, contemporary personality and style. Read More