what is that song?

Hopefully the post's title doesn't become a long-running gimmick - I hate not knowing what a piece of music is if I like it. This post however stems from a shopping trip to American Eagle (don't worry, I didn't buy anything) last weekend. It really serves two purposes that I'll elaborate on: 1.) the commercialization of indie music 2.) Wolf Parade

We'll get to Wolf Parade first, as it's ostensibly the easier issue to tackle. The Montreal group, fronted by now-one half of Handsome Furs (looked at here on WNTY here, here and here), Dan Boeckner, and now-Sunset Rubdown band leader (featured here), Spencer Krug, has been around long enough that it's one of those other groups I regret not getting into earlier. I've certainly tried to keep abreast of Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown since discovering them, but Wolf Parade's back-catalog is only something I've dabbled in conservatively. Again: mistake.

Wolf Parade is evidently the more exciting, engaging, alt-rock-centric precursor to both (major) offshoot groups it spawned. They mix Spencer and Dan's vocals interchangeably, and it's amazing how two people who are so outwardly different can have two similar and equally pained-sounding voices. When listening to a Handsome Furs or Sunset Rubdown album, it can get tiresome listening to each guy holding his own for a full length, but interspersed with each other, it becomes much more bearable, and even inviting to listen to. It's also striking how aside from slow marches like "Dinner Bells," Wolf Parade is able to consistently contrast the guys' dullish voices with such upbeat instrumentation.

Anyways, I've known about Wolf Parade for over a year now, but I have to admit to just listening to their debut album, Apologies To The Queen Mary this morning. How I got around to that however is where the story lies. Chilling at American Eagle on a shopping trip, I was greeted with the sounds of Spoon and other indie legends, as well as a few up-and-comers I all recognized. That is, until a certain song came on, and the voice sounded extremely familiar, though the song did not. I knew it wasn't Interpol, though the sadness in the voice echoed lead singer Paul Banks' delivery - and of course Joy Division's Ian Curtis if we're playing that game.

Now, most people who I really like, I can pick out their music quite adeptly if I've heard enough of it. Given that I've heard three album's worth of Dan and Spencer's music away from Wolf Parade, it was a bit disheartening that I had to wait for the TV screen announcing American Eagle's playlist to tell me that I was, in fact, listening to "Shine A Light" by Wolf Parade. Upon realizing it was a Wolf Parade song, I was instantly struck by the catchiness and pure feeling captured in the song, even over the speakers at a retail outlet. Now, Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown both feature their own share of emotion, but it's sometimes convoluted, and in Sunset Rubdown's case, downright weird and indecipherable. Wolf Parade offered something more palatable, accessible, and ultimately, pop-ish.

(This is the part where I post my own mp3 link, or one from hypem, but as luck would have it, basically every single one of Wolf Parade's songs has been removed from hypem's database, which means Wolf Parade really doesn't want their music being shared that way...regardless, below is a link I got through hypem from a post on hearya.com, so credit goes to them)

Wolf Parade - Shine A Light

Now the second issue at hand. The commercialization and mainstreaming of indie. I'll keep this as short and sweet as possible, though an entire essay could easily be written about the topic. Kids, teens, young adults, and even twentysomethings tend to love indie music. They also tend to shop at the same stores. Maybe it's just that I heard Wolf Parade playing in an American Eagle, which is the poster-store for largely dressing like a trust-fund douchebag, even though you may not be anywhere near that well-off. (Full disclosure: Yes, I have pieces of clothing from American Eagle. I certainly don't shop there regularly though, and I have a certain self-consciousness about me when I am looking for clothes there.)

Back to the music however. It makes perfect sense to play music that your shoppers would like. But when you think about the kind of aesthetic and corporate image American Eagle has, it would seem that getting played there would fulfill every criteria of "selling out," whether by the band's design or not. Where, especially in a realm like indie culture, selling out and authenticity are always at the helm of current issues, you have to consider being irked a little bit by the whole thing. "Indie" itself is derived from "independent," as in the record labels that went their own way and did their own thing, instead of following suit (and suits) with the major record labels. Such a fierce and ingrained sense of independence breeds a mistrust for mainstreaming and selling out, while maintaining an undeniable emphasis on authenticity. Plainly and simply, it just doesn't feel authentic for American Eagle to play Wolf Parade.

Whether or not that's a harsh criticism of American Eagle is up to the individual, but take it for what you will. But like any other company, it will cater to what the majority wants, and that requires constantly changing your stance on something. Indie is "in" right now. If country somehow made a huge leap to the mainstream and dominated in sectors like indie is doing currently, I'm sure American Eagle would be playing the hell out of that too. But for now, indie feels like it's mine and ours, so when you see corporations pimping it out, you have to take it a little personally.

That being said, all thanks to American Eagle for playing that Wolf Parade track and igniting an interest in me for them. So what am I trying to say here? I don't know.

a pictorial analogy of how I feel about music at the moment

By my estimation, it's been two weeks and a day since I posted anything. That's just way too long, but in my defense, I just moved out, got a job, and university started, so I've had my hands full with classes, work and getting settled. Obviously music's been a big part of that, but I've found my habits have changed a little bit, and I'm no longer able to keep daily track of what's new on Pitchfork or what's hot on the hypemachine. I've had peeks here and there of both, but with a shoddy wi-fi connection in the new place, even that's been tough.

So with all of that in mind, I may as well clear out old inventory first. I promised some record reviews earlier in the summer, but really only delivered on my take of Jackson Square from Arkells. In that time, I've literally added 214 songs to my iTunes library, many of which are from albums by Joel Plaskett, Black Mountain, Ladyhawk (not Ladyhawke), Radiohead, Death From Above 1979, Broken Social Scene, Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains, Lightning Dust, Arcade Fire, and my much-loved collection of New Pornographers tunes.

Within this post, I'll actually have quick little run-downs of each one of those albums, but first, I'll get to what I promised earlier, and do some short reviews of previous albums. A foreword though: if I'm passionate about something, I'll be more likely to follow through with it - the following few albums didn't make as big an impression on me as Jackson Square did, so that's why I didn't have quite the same initiative to review them.

Sunset Rubdown | Dragonslayer | I liked this album. I really did. But when the majority of the songs are around 5 minutes and there's a 10 minute epic like "Dragon's Lair," it can be a hard thing to throw on and listen to in its entirety. "Idiot Heart" is certainly the standout, and the rest of the album's songs have much the same structure and sound, but overall, that tends to be a dense and disorganized one, right down to lead singer Spencer Krug's voice and lyrics.

There's some sentences he utters that'll surely make you question his sanity, and that's after you wrap your head around what was actually just half-shouted/half-sung at you. Again, it's good music - but I stress music. It's really an album that's more to be appreciated than truly enjoyed; more like attending a symphony in a church than a rock concert in an arena. Before moving on though, I do want to add that "Apollo And The Buffalo And Anna Anna Anna Oh!" is on the shortlist for this year's "Best Song With A Song Title That's Long Yet Still Ties In To What's Actually Sung." - and that's to take nothing away from a song that's actually still good regardless.

The Most Serene Republic | ...And The Ever-Expanding Universe | Yet again, another good album, but another that I didn't truly enjoy or play too often. To approximate their sound would be to compare them to Broken Social Scene, albeit on a smaller and happier scale. Again, it's largely orchestral music, and some of the songs border on modern classical music, with some truly great strings and piano arrangements. There's a joyous and uplifting tilt to most of the songs, and "Heavens To Purgatory" will be most people's favorite, but it's simply one of those things that's not totally my cup of tea.

Speaking of that though, The Most Serene Republic actually seems like a good band to just sit outside in the garden while drinking tea and listen to. It's that kind of music I guess; relaxing and modest, with just enough pep to not be boring or dragging on your ears. They're playing here in Halifax in November, and I may yet check them out, just to see if there's any added pizzaz to their live shows that may not come through in the recorded versions of the songs.

Handsome Furs | Plague Park | I remember I was going to review this one simply with more recent album Face Control in mind. To be honest, I barely listen to this album, and I've actually taken more of a liking to Face Control in recent days, so there's little to compare I guess. Suffice it to say that in my earlier stipulation that Handsome Furs would sound better with some live drums...I guess they utilize them on Plague Park, though with the decidedly slower and more deliberate sound of the latter album, they don't have quite the same effect I'd intended when I made that recommendation.

Plague Park, funnily enough, sounds like Handsome Furs decided to record an album of them playing a small underground jazz club. Whereas Face Control sounded boxed-in, the earlier album is simply more rounded in its claustrophobic-ness, as if that jazz club was built in a small cave. "Hearts Of Iron" shows off the above analogy quite well, but tracks like "Cannot Get Started" show off more of the direction Handsome Furs took later on with Face Control, dominant drum machines, faster-paced choruses, reverbed guitar and all.

If you were to measure the albums against each other simply in terms of some abstract "excitedness," Face Control would score about an 8.2/10, while Plague Park clocks in around 5.3/10. Yes, totally random numbers, but that's what the albums sound and feel like to me. Dan Boeckner's voice is pretty forlorn on either compilation, but the instrumentation and pace of the two albums make a real difference. For one, it's like wife and bandmate Alexei Perry woke up and decided to take the obvious energy she has during live shows and transmit it to album form on Face Control. Sadly, you don't get that on their first effort.

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But good, that gets those out of the way. Because it may well be another few days before I get the free time/initiative to do another post, I'm also going to get a bunch of other reviews and musings off my chest right now, so another long post it is.

Like I alluded to earlier, I've been putting my room and the general apartment together since moving in, and much of this I've been doing while listening to entire albums on iTunes, something I very rarely did in the past, but which I became much more attuned to this summer. I owe much of this to my friend Laura, who chastised me for my singles-heavy listening, and kind of reintroduced me to the concept of listening to entire albums. It's certainly given me an affinity for hearing albums all the way through, instead of simply picking and choosing what I want to listen to out of them - although hand-in-hand with that, listen to an album enough, and it becomes easier and more justifiable to pick out some favorites you'll come back to again and again.

In light of all the above, a quick rundown of what I've been listening to for the last month plus, with a song to check out from each:

Arcade Fire | Funeral | It's no wonder to me now why this album was so well-received and so quite universally well-loved. In 10 songs, Arcade Fire show off how to make an album, make it work well together, and how to arrange the songs for the maximum impact. There are four or five legitimately great songs ("Tunnels," "Power Out," "Wake Up," "Rebellion (Lies)" spring to mind quickest) and the rest more than hold their own. It's an intensely listenable album and a favorite with many of my friends.

Arcade Fire - "Power Out"

Radiohead | OK Computer | I knew going in that this was the more rocking Radiohead album, and I really like it for that. Lots of classics in here, some of which I'd heard, and others which I'd never and which really surprised and pleased me. There's diversity and only the subtlest hints that Radiohead was going to unleash Kid A years down the line. It just blows me away that this album came out in 1997 - 12 years later it sounds just as great, and I can hear the precursors in their music to the likes of Keane and Coldplay in the decade following its release.

Radiohead - "Electioneering"

Radiohead | Kid A | Brutal honesty time: yes, I did cheat on my final exam. Oh wait, Radiohead. Yeah, not as big of a fan of Kid A as I am of OK Computer. If I'm simply one of those people who would have back then dismissed it as experimental trash, or if I'm just someone who favors straightforward rock over electronic hissing and concept-heavy material, so be it. I like to think I'm pretty open to experimental noise and music, and Kid A is supposedly epic in that regard. Maybe I don't fully appreciate it in that way, or I just don't have the same connection to it as people who heard it when it first came out.

Don't get me wrong, there's more than a few songs on there that I do truly enjoy listening to, but they're the more conventional Radiohead, and seemingly not the pieces that went together to make Kid A the sonic landmark that it so overwhelmingly happens to be. Maybe my view is reflected well enough in my choice of song from the album:

Radiohead - "The National Anthem"

Lightning Dust | Infinite Light | I went out and bought this album, and I'm actually very pleased that I did. Singer Amber Webber (of the to-be-reviewed-in-a-minute music collective Black Mountain) has a beautiful voice, one that sounds strong but damaged all at once. It seems ready to break at any time, but there's an underlying force driving her to keep the words coming out of her mouth. I read that the duo (Joshua Wells - also of Black Mountain - is in Lightning Dust) rented a Steinway piano for the album, and they put it to great use, clearly showing off the piano parts with skillful playing and clear acoustics. Lightning Dust may be getting a little more publicity right now, but nowhere near what it should be when they craft such good music.

Lightning Dust - "I Knew" (was to put "The Times" but couldn't find it on hypem...definitely check it out though if you can)

Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains | Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains | Similarly went out and bought this album, and I'm equally glad I did. Fun fact: Sebastien was actually one half of Death From Above 1979 before they broke up, and he's went on to lend guest vocals on some of my favorites like "Let's Make Out" by Does It Offend You, Yeah?. I didn't know the latter fact until after I bought this album, so it turns out I was more familiar with Grainger's work than I even thought. Quick and simple review though: my second favorite album on this list. Great variation between the songs, awesome backing band, great pace to the album, and really makes you wish that DFA1979 got back together for one more go at it - between Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains and MSTRKRFT, the boys have still got it.

Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains - "I Hate My Friends"

Black Mountain | Black Mountain | The aforementioned musical collective, hailing from Vancouver, BC. Of the two albums by them here, this is my favorite. It tends to longer songs, so it can be harder to digest, but to think of and compare it earnestly: The Rolling Stones do pysched-out, 70's-influenced, Canadian-rock - right down to this almost-rip-off/tribute:

Black Mountain - No Satisfaction

Black Mountain | In The Future/Bastards Of Light | The newer of the two albums, this go by Black Mountain is certainly more appropriate for their name, as the material is darker and almost gothic. Some of the care-free sentiments and delivery present on Black Mountain are done away with and replaced instead by frenzied classic-rock guitar playing and a grandeur that seems a little unbefitting of a group of musicians from Vancouver. With songs clocking in 7:07, 8:03, and 16:41, you also get the feeling that Black Mountain could have split a few tracks in two and still had quality tunes.

Black Mountain - "Wucan"

Ladyhawk | Ladyhawk | The initial offering from the also-Vancouverites, Ladyhawk lean a little more to the garage sound of rock, and do it admirably. There's a bit of a live sound mixed into the album, but it doesn't detract from the quality, instead adding an authentic quality to the compilation. Between some legit rockers and the perfectly suited voice of the lead singer, it's a wonder these guys aren't bigger either; I know they have a good Canadian following, but this album proved pretty well they've got all the tools to make it.

Ladyhawk - "The Dugout"

Ladyhawk | Shots | If I have any complaint about Ladyhawk though, it's their front-loading of albums. Ladyhawk starts with a great trio of "48 Hours," "The Dugout," and "My Old Jacknife," while Shots works a similar angle with standout "I Don't Always Know What You're Saying" and the impeccable "S.T.H.D." before tailing off a bit into death-obsessed songs like "Corpse Paint" and quite literally, "Faces Of Death." In light of the previous statement finishing out the Ladyhawk review: these guys certainly have all the elements of a band on the make; it may just be a matter of putting them all together for a consistently great effort to launch them a little higher in music fans' minds.

Ladyhawk - "S.T.H.D"

Broken Social Scene | Broken Social Scene | I said above that Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains was my second favorite album here. Well, this is my first. It's the one I've been going back to over and over: everything from cooking meals to doing the dishes to showering to getting to sleep - Broken Social Scene has everything you could ask for and then some. I didn't dive into the whole album when I initially got into BSS, opting only for You Forgot It In People and two or three songs off Broken Social Scene. On my recent album-hoarding spat though, I went for all 14 tracks off the latter, and could not have been more thoroughly impressed.

You Forgot It In People had some weirder moments and some lackadaisical instrumentals. This album has absolutely none of that - it may be the most perfect album on my iTunes in my regard. Just a stable of outstanding songs, paired with eight or nine other great tunes that make up the most easily digestible and fun-to-listen-to album I've heard, possibly in my life. I mean, yeah, there's great albums that come out all the time, and consensus may dictate which of those is "the best," but to me, right now, Broken Social Scene is probably my favorite album ever. There, I said it. And I only just figured that out as I've been writing these words.

It has everything. Exuberance ("Ibi Dreams of Pavement [A Better Day]"), sincerity ("Major Label Debut"), the sexiest song I've heard in a long time ("Hotel") and a song so damn good that I could care less that it's 9:55 long ("It's All Gonna Break"). I cannot say that about any other album I've heard, previous favorites In Rainbows and Post-Nothing included. That's what, four songs? There's another 10 amazing tracks, so think of it that way. Heck, K-OS even makes an appearance. Where was I in 2005 when this actually came out? I shudder to think that I've went four years without paying attention to this gem.

Broken Social Scene - "Hotel"

Joel Plaskett | Three | This thing really deserves its own separate post at 27 songs long, but with the Polaris Prize being presented tonight and Joel in the running, I may yet give it a proper one should it win/be slighted. Just a genre-spanning spat of tracks spread over three very-well-organized CD's, each one keeping a definitive tone. CD 1 contains most of the singles material and tends to Joel's folksy and rocking side. CD 2 without a doubt contains the real ballads of the compilation, and a few odes to Joel's Maritime (and maritime) connections. CD 3 has some country feel to it (old-country, not that new-country stuff) and the epic "On And On And On," 12 minutes of Joel self-consciously sing-speaking about almost anything that comes to his mind.

Three is just a superb effort, plays great in concert (I've seen three - coincidentally - shows since the album came out, and whether in a theatre setting, outdoors for Canada Day, or at a university concert, it sounds amazing) and is a great introduction for those new to Joel's music, and a special treat for career-long fans of possibly the most lovable guy in Canadian music.

Joel Plaskett - "Through And Through And Through"

Death From Above 1979 | You're A Woman, I'm A Machine | Have you noticed yet I'm extremely far behind on most relevant music, especially some select Canadian classics? Um, yeah. It's sad too, because ever since I really got into alternative music, I've had a great affinity for dance-punk/electro/rock, which nobody does better than DFA1979. I was really only slightly familiar with "Blood On Our Hands," and even then it was through my sister getting the track what must have been about four years ago.

What stuns me about DFA1979 is that they can craft such small and immediate-sounding songs; the majority of tracks clock in under even three minutes. Thank God for the remix economy though; DFA continue to live on through the expansion of their tiny tracks into danceable jaunts many minutes longer. I've already expressed my liking for MSTRKRFT and Sebastien Grainger, so it was nice for me to get into DFA and see where it all started for the two guys.

I can't really say much more about them or the album anyways: it's testosterone in music form and one of the truly great acts that combusted before it could put out any more truly awesome work.

One thing I do have to say though: why the hell did Death From Above Records (officially known as DFA Records after the Sept. 11th attacks since they were a NY-based record label) get mired in a legal dispute with DFA1979 over their original name when they could've put that money towards simply signing the act to their own label instead. I mean honestly, has a group ever been more fit for a label, both in name and musical style, than DFA1979 was for DFA Records? Another shame of a development when it comes to Jesse and Sebastien's adventure into duo-ship.

Death From Above 1979 - "Black History Month"

Upcoming Reviews

...hopefully, because I know I'll be listening to them. It's just a matter of writing up my thoughts.

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

The Most Serene Republic - ...And The Ever Expanding Universe

Arkells - Jackson Square

...and possibly Handsome Furs' debut release, Plague Park. But only as a reference point and in the context of my review of Face Control.

Handsome Furs - "Face Control" review

yes, that's a real, purchased CD...whoa

This review starts with HMV. If you ever want some music, but don't actually want to find it and buy it, it's your kinda store. I went in looking for Japandroids a couple months ago, and after two or three trips plus a couple phone calls, all I ever heard was that the store had the vinyl of Post Nothing, but not the CD. I dunno who was stupider, the guys there who never knew/never told me the band was never going to put out a CD, or me for only bothering to find that fact out a few weeks after my search started.

Needless to say, when I went looking for Face Control, they didn't have it. Kudos to them for ordering it in for me quite promptly, but still, the multiple trips isn't what I look for when I'm buying music.

That aside, the real impetus for buying this album was Handsome Furs' great performance at Virgin Fest in Halifax earlier this month. After quickly browsing Pitchfork's review, I decided it was worth it to buy the album and check it out myself. The packaging was of course neat, if the CD itself wasn't a little hard to locate and slide from its delicate pouch (which valuably had the tracklist printed on it...creative, but not necessarily logical). So I popped it in and listened to it on my long-ish commute home. This was last week, and between my desire to review the album over the last few days and the unforeseen dead battery of my mp3 player this morning, I think I got four or five listens to thing in that time.

What I can draw from all of it is that perspective has a lot to do with things. Albums themselves are alot like singles really, in that sometimes you'll hear something and go "whoa, I need that, that's awesome" and just put it on repeat for days. Other times, you'll know right away something isn't to your taste, and you probably won't give it another chance.

To be honest, my first listen to Face Control had me fall somewhere right in the middle. The duo (of Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner and his [very hot {buy the CD for the liner's topless pics...I'm serious}] wife Alexei Perry) really know how to market themselves, because other than their earlier work and their great live show, I really only knew two singles off the album, and one of them was much better for me than the other. So kudos to them as well, for enticing me to dish out $22 for 12 songs-worth of album on the strength of two songs and a concert.

By now, I know this review might be a little like "Cannot Get. Started" off HF's debut album Plague Park. My apologies, so I'll get to it. The album has grown on me more every listen. I've picked up on little nuances, and I've also come to realize that sometimes an album that has a lot of the same sound isn't always all it's cracked up to be. The first listen, I couldn't even distinguish when one song started and the other began. All the same distorted and droning guitar, slaps, drum machines...they all just flowed together, with nothing markedly standing out from the rest. This is strangely an album where it doesn't pay to listen to it back to front, the way most LP's are supposed to be structured.

So I threw the thing on shuffle today. And lo and behold, the album had a completely different sound. There was some variety, and it wasn't all just one melting pot of songs. There's still the same structure for about 10 of the songs (intro, verse, verse, solo, verse) but you can start to pick out the differences when the tracks are out of order. To go back to my first point about an album being like a song, it really is that strange macrocosm. You look for that nice slow intro, a few good songs to pick it up, that middle section that really establishes the album, maybe a little lull or some weaker tunes, a song or two that hits it out of the park, and maybe a slow finish to wind you down. I can't help thinking of a batting order in a baseball game in terms of setting the table in that same way.

And I looked for that with this album. That middle section is definitely there with lead singles "All We Want Baby, Is Everything" and "I'm Confused," and the other elements are there in bits and pieces, but there's really not that variety in sound and even soundscapes that you expect other albums to have. Even when someone like Joel Plaskett does a concept album, there's still a lot of variance between tracks. Maybe it's the fact there's only so much two people can do with the music, but I found Japandroid's twosome to be varied enough in it's rhythms and song structures to keep me rapt from front to back on their release. At some points I know I definitely yearned for Handsome Furs to add a real drummer and see where it could go, but no chance of that realistically happening.

Boeckner's voice is as yappy as the dog on the album cover, and the pain in his voice is palpatable when he yelps out his lyrics. There's definitely some duplication and filtering going on, but it's not over the top and it doesn't really hurt the delivery at all. It seems hidden under the rest of the music, but the simplicity of his lyrics still manages to help them shine through. Another aspect I found, that's quite hard to put into words, is that the music seems very closed in.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the band's a hell of a live show, but it's like they recorded the album in a little box, with all the sounds bouncing off of each other, and that constant drone in the background. Again, it's not a knock on it, because I love that kind of music, but for 12 songs, it can get kind of monotonous. You get the feeling you just want one of the songs to explode, Dan's voice to rise above everything, the drum slaps to crash down, and for the band to deliver some knockout punch that never seems to come. "All We Want..." comes closest to fulfilling that promise, and it's apt to be firmly entrenched in your head with it's shrill synth and talks of building a heaven...but you can't help but feeling there's that next level the duo could reach.

Many of the songs overall have a really diverse feel to them. "Officer of Hearts" seems like it could've been the featured beat on a mid-90's West Coast gangsta-rap album, while a lot of the other tunes have feelings of country, dance and Dinosaur, Jr.-flecked noise rock - sometimes all at once. I was quick to describe their live show as a band combining equal dashes of dancefloor-ready synth and drum machine with distorted indie rock, but without those huge speakers and Alexei's spirited interpretation of her cold and metallic instruments, those sounds seem a little lost on the album itself.

Now this probably comes off as a pretty hard review overall, but that's not to say there aren't highlights. At least half the songs have a good mix of shout-along verses, rousing breaks and grooving beats. There's a harpsichord-ing instrumental jaunt on the quite-short "(White City)." Tunes like "Evangeline" and "Thy Will Be Done" will make you beg for more in-your-face Handsome Furs, and "Talking Hotel Arbat Blues," funky name aside, has to be the most fun on the whole album, from the chugging backbeat to the perfectly messed-up stadium-ready guitar. "Nyet Spasiba" is another one I would've liked to see the duo build on through the album, with some real excitement brewing during the track. Handsome Furs certainly have pop sensibility, and they're all the better for it when they decide to employ it.

Maybe it comes back to perspective again. I have to catch up on my Wolf Parade, so I'm not sure if this marks a sharp detour from Dan's work with that critically-acclaimed and well-loved group, but I'm not sure if he's breaking new ground here. I'd love it if Handsome Furs could step out of their comfort zone, experiment a bit, and churn out something unexpected. Nothing really jars you out of the dark and heavy haze of the overbearing percussion of the album. A guitar stab here and there is about all you get.

Who knows, maybe this is experimental and different for some people. It just isn't that way for me though. With all that said however, I still love Handsome Furs, can't wait to see them in concert again, and look forward to their next album. Now excuse while I go find that album liner...