Wolf Parade

Expo 86

Written by: TL on 10/08/2010 23:56:27

Recently I got my hands on the new (third) album from Canadian indie-four piece Wolf Parade after reading good criticism of it in some magazine. Being immediately impressed with the opening song "Cloud Shadow On The Mountain", I've assigned considerable listening time to this album, trying to establish a similarly friendly relationship with any and all of its remaining songs.

For those not in the know, however, let's start out by presenting Wolf Parade as a band that is essentially pretty God damn indie. With guitars that rumble alongside retro-sounding synths and relatively dark vocals of the unmistakably 'indie' quality, I find Wolf Parade likely to appeal to you if you like at least one of the following bands: The Arcade Fire, The Horrors, The National, The Twilight Sad, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Manchester Orchestra, Maximo Park, Modest Mouse... and probability of this prediction is likely to increase towards the end of that list.

Personally, I like quite a few of those bands, as with a sound especially reminiscent of Maximo Park's latest "Quicken The Heart", the aforementioned opener "Cloud Shadow On The Mountain" quickly earned a spot in my heart as a song that can endure many many listens. However, after many, many listens, I do feel like the quality of the individual songs deteriorates slightly but steadily as the album progresses. Tracks two, three and four "Palm Road", "What Did My Lover Say?" and "Little Golden Age" are holding on to my attention alright, but gradually less and less so, and by the time the second half of the record comes around, finding stand out moments for my memory to cling to is notably harder.

That's not to say "Expo 86" is 'one hit wonder' kind of album. The truth is not so black and white, because on closer inspection, the songs on offer are all unmistakably cool, and most have a vibe that suggests they can really keep an audience going if they get the live treatment where the listener gets to feel the sound in their bones. Simply put, there's a feeling of quality and class that brings "Expo 86" a long way, but the individual songs need to pack more of a consistent punch, for the band to take a step up to the level of the best of their contemporaries.

Download: Cloud Shadow On The Moutain, What Did My Lover Say?, In The Direction Of The Moon
For The Fans Of: Modest Mouse, Maximo Park, Manchester Orchestra
Listen: myspace.com/wolfparade

Release Date 29.06.2010
Sup Pop

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