#181
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer (Sub Pop, 2008)
I remember reading early feedback on this album after it originally leaked and shaking my head. Lots of vocal listeners on blogs and message boards alike seemed to be more than a little disappointed with what they had been hearing. I don't remember many of the specific complaints, but it all seemed to boil down to it not being a worthy follow-up to the highly lauded Apologies to the Queen Mary. Which, on initial reflection, seemed like it certainly was possible - Wolf Parade wouldn't have been the first band to stumble while trying to follow-up a huge debut. Seeing as I was deep in the midst of a phase where I absolutely refused to sample any of my highly anticipated albums until I could hold them in my hand and hear them in full, I could only patiently wait and speculate as to what went so horribly wrong. More advance reviews trickled out and started to point to one of the largest concerns, that the album lacked the immediate, earworm pop tunes that the first contained. By the time the album actually came out, I had moved on to other albums and several weeks passed before I finally picked it up and several more before I even bothered to give it a good listen. And when I did give it a chance, I understood some of the complaints, there wasn't anything that immediately struck me as a great pop tune, but I also felt like many of those disappointed were completely missing the point. This wasn't Wolf Parade's pop record. This was Wolf Parade giving into their proggier, artier side and absolutely losing themselves in the details. Which ended up making an album just as enjoyable, but for entirely different reasons. Songs twist and turn through shifting tempos and moods, referencing at different times bands like Genesis (the outro of "Bang Your Drum") and Steely Dan (the guitar work on "California Dreamer"). The epic eleven-minute closer, "Kissing the Beehive", brings this all together, combining propulsive drums, twisting guitar lines, and bubbling synths underneath. Then a funny thing happened after a few listens, those pop melodies that seemed to be missing started to pop up all over the place - all over "Language City", throughout "The Grey Estates", even in the chorus of "California Dreamer". No, this wasn't as immediate as Queen Mary, this was another thing entirely - a thrilling record to get lost in, one that rewards close listening.
1 comment:
Totally agreed on this one, Jon. There's a lot of substance to this record, and digging through it is really worthwhile. Though I wasn't so into their first release, Mount Zoomer is a total winner for me.
Post a Comment