Apologies to the Queen Mary — Wolf Parade
Subpop
2005
Rating:


Wolf Parade loudly announced itself as something more than a mere flash-in-the-pan indie sensation with the release of its self-titled EP in July. Now that the band's first full-length album, "Apologies to the Queen Mary," has finally hit, Wolf Parade proves what many had merely suspected — Wolf Parade is a daunting musical force to be reckoned with.

The Modest Mouse comparisons have been coming fast and furious (lead Mouse Isaac Brock produced the album and Spencer Krug, who shares singing duties with Dan Boeckner, has something of Brock's impassioned howl), as have references to fellow Montreal natives Arcade Fire and Frog Eyes. They're all true, but Wolf Parade also contains hints of The Pixies, Brian Eno, Neutral Milk Hotel, Radiohead, David Bowie, Talking Heads and even Bruce Springsteen. There's no combination of musical inspiration quite as viscerally potent as that in rock right now.

Wolf Parade makes art-pop. Not the chilly, Brecht-ian kind, but the kind that makes listeners feel intense emotions with a smart guitar-chord combination from Boeckner, the sorrow Hadji Bakara can wreak with his unobtrusive electronic blips, and drummer Arlen Thompson's uncanny ability to make something huge out of his unshowy percussion. "Apologies to the Queen Mary" is bursting with excitement, but it's also full of heartache. The experience of listening to the music is tremendous.

"You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son" opens the album with a Mouse-y, Funeral dirge. Thompson provides the slightly funky march beat and an organ sound gives the song a sinister turn. "I was a hero in the morning / I ain't no hero in the night," Krug sings. "Modern World," with its minor-key acoustic guitar and Arcade-ian oohs and piano bridge, is a song in mourning for the state of things, as is the later track, the propulsive "We Built Another World," which finds fault with the way that "Everyone's disguised just a little bit" and where ghosts hang from the trees.

The album begins to soar with "Grounds for Divorce." Krug's giddyup strain opens the song with a way to transform the modern world into something beautiful. "You said you hate the sound of the buses on the ground / You said you hate the way they scrape their brakes all over town / I said, ‘Pretend it's whales keeping their voices down.'" Dan Broeckner's highly synthesized guitar gives the song a playful sound to give the imagery an extra sense of whimsy.

"We Built Another World" and "Fancy Claps" bring in a harder rocking, post-punk sound. "Fancy Claps" is driven so unrelentingly by Thompson's snare and a frantic keyboard it's a heart attack whenever the beat drops out for the band to clap its hands (though no one says, "Yeah!"). The New Wave of "It's a Curse" builds its melody up from The Romantics' "In Your Sleep" until it finds itself at the dark edge of town. "Shine a Light" gets back with an organ sound that makes the track sound vital.

Considering the album is as haunting as it is, it comes as no surprise that "Apologies" is so lyrically preoccupied with ghosts. "Same Ghost Every Night" is filled with such weariness that Boeckner's vocals take on the growling characteristics of Kurt Cobain. The song grows with desperation as sadness seeps from the keyboard, until it finally turns elegiac when it reaches the five-minute mark. "How we love the seasons that hide in our stomachs / That howl and howl and howl as if dropped from the great height," Boeckner moans. "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" begins with a child-like organ and a "Hey Mr. Blue Sky" beat. "I've got a plan / It's the best that I can do / Now we say, "using God's hands," / But God doesn't always have the best god damned plans, does he?" Krug sings. When Krug finally reveals his new plan to be a "new song to sing, it goes / La la la la la la," it's a moment of pure joy and inclusiveness.

On "I'll Believe in Anything," Krug is full of ways to make your life better. "I could take another hit for you… / …And I could take away the salt from your eyes… / …And I could give you my apologies… / …And I could take away your shaky knees / And I could give you all the olive trees / And look at the trees and look at my face and look at the place far away from here." Amid the oohs from Arcade Fire's "Wake Up," Krug makes his most heartfelt promise: "I'll take you where nobody knows you / And nobody gives a damn either way." It's not a sentence of damnation, but a means of getting away from the problematic modern world. And we all want to go with him.

Posted Thursday, September 29, 2005

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/wolf.parade/apologies.to.the.queen.mary