Re: Hype...Sometimes its worth it

I must admit, I'm a bit sheepish about putting this album after my little sort-of-not-really rant about buzz-bands a few posts ago. But I'll tell you what, this album is really really good and deserves the attention it is and will be getting for, what I'm sure will be, many many months. In every review I've run into so far it has mentioned something from the following list of things: Arcade Fire, Montreal, Modest Mouse, Canada in general, Issac Brock's production, and the fact that there are so many damn bands with "wolf" in their band name lately. While all of those things are valid ways to approach a review, I want to make a new comparison, one that hasn't been made yet. Folks are quick to lump them in with their neighbors, but I want to lump them in with the two tracks that opened up "The Decline of British Sea Power." Sure this seems odd, but in my quest to come up with a way for you to connect their music to something, this is the most valid thing I've come up with. Sure, most of British Sea Power's catalog is filled with slower ballad-type songs regarding things like nature and literature, but the first two tracks of that album were grand, big-time spaz-rock. This is how I Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary. While BSP followed their mold created by the second half of their debut album, Wolf Parade falls into something closer the first act of that album.

Being able to create something equal parts beauty and hard is not the easiest job in the world. It takes skill to be able to lift melodies and harmony out of the murk of your fuzzed out instruments. The jaunty pianos and big beat drums open up the album on "You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son" and then leads into the technophobic "Modern World." I think something that really stands out on this album is the drums. They are incredibly simple and still pushed pretty far up in the mix. I'm a fan of big, uncomplicated drums. I love the tribalness of it, the way it drives a song forward like its a march. Almost every song is just a basic bass drum beat, some well placed crash, a hi-hat, and some rolls to fill things out. It just sounds fantastic. Things really begin to kick in round about the third track, "Grounds For Divorce." This song really brings in the wonderful, synth interplay that these guys do (not overdone like some 80's rehash bands lately). From here on out the album is consistently well done whether new songs or cleaned up versions of already released (albeit limited) tracks. Be it a faster song or one of the two longer funeral dirge speed songs, everything sounds great, is catchy as hell, and just makes for an overall great album. While I really love the Arcade Fire's album, I find that this album is far more accessible, and overall stylistically different (with the exception for a tiny bit of "Shine A Light"). This is a thinking, working, and normal rocking man's album. Both fun and complex, accessible and artsy, this is what great music should be. I'm sure if you look back, I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Good music is for the people, not just for some little elitist faction. Wolf Parade is for the people. Up the Wolf Parade.

So here I go, I gonna say it, in the world of easy Canada comparisons, this is a better album than Funeral. So shoot me.

Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

(I'm trying a new file sharing site because rapidshare was being a dick, so let me know if it doesn't work. If it is faulty then I will try again tomorrow. But, I must reiterate, LET ME KNOW IF IT DOESN'T WORK)

Love,
John