The future of popular music, it seems, is rooted in electronics. The advances in technology and glossy new production techniques have become essential ingredients for monetary success.  Even the most stripped-down folk artists in pop music are guilty of dabbling with these advancements in the industry (see: Bon Iver’s “Woods”), though not always with the best results. Although rejecting technology certainly doesn’t ensure career suicide by any means, the presence of technology is overwhelmingly pertinent in the popular music landscape.Waiting For Sunday’s new record, The Courage, The Strength, The Wisdom and Doubt fully embraces a more simplistic, traditional approach to pop music. The Vancouver based quartet’s sound is founded on the marriage of acoustic guitars and crisp vocals that is loosely accompanied by light, clean lead guitars and a basic drum and bass backline. Although the organic arrangements place more emphasis on quality songwriting by removing any electronic crutch, Waiting For Sunday is faced with the unrelenting pressure to appeal to the sonically spoiled audiences of twenty-first century popular music. For the most part, Waiting For Sunday delivers a poignant, introspective, and uninhibitedly personal record with moments of acousti-pop bliss.The record opens sharply with the biting “Secrets and Consequences”, a track that graciously demonstrates the full potential of Waiting For Sunday. Singer Daniel Hudson’s vocals dictate a richly dynamic melody overtop of the immovably sturdy backline of drummer Ben Weymouth and bassist Mircea Tracke, while Matt Gauld’s articulate guitar work elevates the track from its strong foundation. While “Secrets and Consequences” exclaim Hudson’s acceptance of necessary personal strife (“if I apologized to you a thousand times, he’s going to lock me out and ignore all my cries”), his self assurance shakes and crumbles as the record progresses, as if denouncing his own confidence through retrospect. On “Misunderstood”, for example, Hudson ambiguously acknowledges, “there are things about me that you should leave alone”, implying discomfort in further alluding to any crippling internal demons he is facing.  However, Hudson deviates from a subsequent series of slow melancholy tracks to reassert his confidence on the record’s best track “I’ll Give You Something To Scream About”, in which he sings, “grab a hold of me, and just scream out”. Incidentally, Gauld takes this opportunity to shine by placing thick, quick-paced riffs overtop of Hudson’s vocals and Weymouth and Tracke’s relentlessly pounding backbeat.While Waiting For Sunday’s chemistry works in their favor when they fully realized as a unit, the more minimal, isolated tracks fail to appeal to the same degree.  On “Last Goodbye”, for example, Hudson’s vocals fail to carry the song and the track operates as a standard filler break-up song with little imagination and originality. A similar burden is placed on Hudson in the mid-tempo closer “In My Heart”, in which the band experiences a similarly underwhelming result.While not without flaws, The Courage, The Strength, The Wisdom and Doubt poses as an admirable effort from Waiting For Sunday. The highest points of this record are by no means determined by a single element of the band. Instead, The Courage, The Strength, The Wisdom and Doubt demonstrates the capabilities of inspired collaboration amongst four undeniably talented musicians, even if it is with boring old acoustic guitars instead of a fancy new MacBook.Written By: Jamie Cessford