"Thank you December for your cold grey air/lakes are frozen, trees are bare./I once loved her of that I am proud/just no room for me up on that cloud" Blue Rodeo "Up On That Cloud", Are You Ready 2005

Lines like that used to describe the vulnerability of an unrequited love, when you know you have no hope in hell of ever having it reciprocated, are the perfect antidote to the usual she don't know I exist moaning that passes for emotion. I don't normally associate song lyrics with poetry; most lyricists are too intent on reproducing a formula, but the imagery utilized by Keelor and Cuddy is equal to that of any poets.

Of course lyrics alone don't make for interesting music. On Are You Ready once again shows that they are equally as comfortable with rocking out, "Can't Help Wondering Why", as they are with introspective ballads "Phaedra's Meadow" This song is also an example of their willingness to step outside the type of music that people normally associate with them in an attempt to find the means to express the emotion contained in the song.

In most other bands if they all of a sudden throw a tin whistle and Uilleann Pipes into a song it would sound like they were cashing in on the whole Riverdance/Celtic thing. But listen to the lyrics and feel the mood they create, and you realize that nothing is more appropriate than the haunting sounds of those instruments for these songs.

Blue Rodeo is one of those bands you can always count on for producing intelligent and thoughtful music that avoids the pitfalls of cheap sentimentality and songs about pick-up trucks. But consistency in their case does not mean stagnation, and they continue to grow and both musically and lyrically. Are You Ready is another step in the really interesting journey that is Blue Rodeo. If you've never heard their music you're in for a pleasant treat, for the long time fan there's some pleasant surprises as well reassurance that they are still one of the most consistent bands on the market today.