speed of dark

Poster by Spencer’s sister, Zoë Krug Sather
Indie Mom said to me last weekend, "I've been listening to the new Wolf Parade album (At Mount Zoomer), and I just....don't...like it. Maybe I need more time with it."

Of the two of us, she has been much more a fan of that album than I am, although I like several of the songs on it very much. Apologies also had more songs--12--than At Mount Zoomer's 9 tracks, so there were more possibilities to like. I do think she will like it better the more she listens to it. I know I do.

On Apologies, I was generally attracted to the Dan Boeckner tracks more than the Spencer Krug tracks. After I got to know the band well enough to tell their styles apart, it's kind of like Lennon and McCartney. While I think Krug is an inspired keyboardist, I think he needs reining in because he tends to go a bit overboard. Of the several side projects these guys sprouted in the last three years, only Boeckner's Handsome Furs was attractive to me. I'm just not a big fan of the dischordant progressions and broken falsettos that Krug seems to favor.

I understand the band's reason for taking time off away from each other. They needed to forge new and different musical connections and attitudes so as not to make the same album again. In my opinion, they accomplished that mission, with Boeckner's more straightforward, less yelping singing style one of the best improvements to me. Clearly Wolf Parade came back together here with the goal of combining their assests rather than distinguishing their differences. From the first deedle-deedle of Krug's keys on "Soldier's Grin," there is a solid, new assurance, if not the immediate catchiness of earlier songs like "Disco Sheets" and "Modern World"--although "The Grey Estates" comes as close as anything to capturing that.

Krug strengths are sufficiently under control to show them off, especially when he's on the synths, while not getting too carried away. I like the dark and lovely "California Dreamer," "Call It a Ritual" and "Bang Your Drum," and I like his vocals when he's singing "Fire in the hole!" on "Kissing the Beehive." "An Animal In Your Care" grew out of a song that was called "Chinese Way" in last year's concerts, and that is the one song on this CD that I don't care for very much.

While the band may have searched for different sonic inspirations, thematically, WP are still in battle against the perils and shallowness of modern life.

"Soldier's Grin": "...there is a city in my mind...but this place is no friend of mine"

"Language City": all the ringing telephones/there's no one around/We are not at home/Ignore the telephone!"

"The Grey Estates": "out the window the neons sing/a place of telegraphs that don't mean a thing""

"Kissing the Beehive": "You put your face on the glass/And you called it good cinema/As if you didn't know that it would sting"

I have not found a lyrics site for this album, so it's possible that these lyrics here are not perfect. Photo: this is why I love Dan.

I'm not sure at this point if At Mount Zoomer will be among my top albums at the end of 2008, but it's very likely that one of the songs will be on my list. The main contenders are "California Dreamer" (which evolved from "Stevie" a song they performed during last year's concerts), "Fine Young Cannibals," and especially the lengthy and powerful "Kissing the Beehive" (a shorter version was performed as "Crazy Horse" last year). Those three, especially "Beehive," show the fusion of Boeckner's and Krug's talents at their best, which creates the essence of Wolf Parade that makes the band far more than the sum of its parts.

Fine Young Cannibals from At Mount Zoomer (2008)
Crazy Horse (early live version of "Kissing the Beehive,"
recorded at Download Festival, Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA, August 18, 2007)
I'll Believe In Anything (acoustic piano version),
original version on Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005)

MySpace | Label: Sub Pop Records
Buy at Sub PopX and receive the poster above until they run out. I love Dante as a bunny.
iTunes, and Amazon.com

Show Schedule:
Wolf Parade kicks off a comprehensive tour of the U.S. on July 7 in Pontiac, MI. They are amazing to see live. See Wolf Parade at the Glass House for our review and photos of an excellent show. We're seeing them again next month!

Photos of Spencer Krug and Dan Boekner by alt-gramma, Speed of Dark.