Friday, May 29, 2009

I'm Back or Wolf Parade!


lets pretend there WASN'T a 1 year break between my last post and now

Last.fm tells me that Wolf Parade is like Ra Ra Riot, Born Ruffians, and Arcade Fire so I decided to give them a listen. I got their premier cd, Apologies to the Queen Mary, and enjoyed the slow cacophonous opening of the intro track of the album (You are a Runner and I am my Father's Son).

The album kind of picks up with the second track, Modern World. I feel the Born Ruffians style a bit more with this song with an almost Modest-Mouse-meets-Delta-Spirit-style vocal delivery. I feel like Last.fm was right on the money, as the instrumentals remind me of Ra Ra Riot's baroque-popish instrumentation mixed with the eerie echoes of Arcade Fire. The song is definitely catchy and almost Shin-like.

Grounds for Divorce continues the album with a style unmistakably similar to my other favourite indie bands, but with a twinge of unique and interesting added in. It's like straight up indie rock with a spacey and almost psychedelic twinge. I guess I shouldn't be surprised of these similarities as they share a label with The Shins and were signed to it by Modest Mouse's Issac Brock.

The album is consistently catchy and musically solid, ranging tonally from eerie and down-toned
This is a Long Drive... to frenetic and exasperated.

The style becomes familiar after a short stint on the album, but doesn't grow stale until the 10th or 11th track. This is, however, of no detriment to the band as I have an extremely low attention span.

Check out the album or take a listen at their Myspace

~Mike


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