Every time I start to thank Canada for a great band, I think about Nickelback and have to replace my broken monitor. As Canada’s latest incremental reparation, Montreal-based quartet Wolf Parade returns this week with their third LP on Sub Pop, Expo 86. The band recorded and mixed at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango with Hoard Bilerman (former member of Arcade Fire), after only a couple of months of writing, having reconvened in November ’09 from their own side projects- guitarist Dan Boeckner from touring with Handsome Furs, keyboardist Spencer Krug from touring with Sunset Rubdown.
On Expo 86 the band continues its trajectory in grander sized sound while attempting to maintain its charms. For any of its pop concessions, the album contains no erosion of passion. Especially on the Boeckner pieces, much of the album plays like a neon Springsteen- enthused, all-in rock ‘n roll draped in casio synth ready for dancing. Krug too has developed past his shaken songwriter portrait, apparent on earlier tracks like “You Are a Runner,” sounding more on this album to be leading a charge than quietly taking the fall. He’s more emphatic than ever, rising to match Boeckner’s swing and importantly keeps the flow of the album.
Expo 86 features more massively reverberating guitars and catchy synth riffs, which by measures of size and intensity sounds predominantly like Boeckner behind the wheel. But that’s not to say that there is less of Krug’s subconscious bending or stream of consciousness. Vocal duties are still split straight down the middle. And Krug’s otherworldly wanderings are introduced from the get-go, as he muses on the opening line, “I was asleep in a hammock/I was dreaming that I was a web/I was a dreamcatcher hanging in the window of a minivan parked along a water’s edge/I’d say that I was all alone… but I’ll never be born as a scorpion.” Needless to say, dissecting any lyrical meaning from Krug probably takes a scalpel carved from a crystal skull. But the opener is as frenetic as the album gets, which leaves it less haunting as the work on Apologies to the Queen Mary, playing more continuously as up-tempo.
It’s Boeckner’s sentimentality that seems to be the primal force behind the album (the Springsteen thing). This is most explicitly stated on “Little Golden Age, ”I don’t miss my little golden age/cause the body takes the heart takes the heart from place to place/ but this place still stands this place remains unchanged/and I cant go back but who would want to anyway?” Call it unsentimental sentimentality, but the feeling is there. Maybe “Pobodys Nerfect” is more convincing: “We built this city on cocaine and lazers.” Late-night uppers and flashing lights? Yea, now you’re with me. The album’s direction may best be represented by “Ghost Pressure,” the album’s first single and arguably the best tune on the record. Its an infectious, repetitive chorus backed by rock steady drums, cracking Boeckner vocals, bleeping and buzzing synth, and shimmery guitar lines. “Little vision come shake me up, shake me up,” seems to metaphorically asks of us to dance along.
There are a few indie fan-favorites that have smoothly expanded their sound with wider appealing records this year, The National and The Hold Steady are probably the most notable. Expo 86 is a step in a similar direction for Wolf Parade. This aren’t Dan Boeckner’s most piercing and howling selections, and is far from Krug’s most fantastical work which I think his Moon Face EP earlier this year stands a good running for. But Expo 86 is a full band effort; a well produced collection of energetic, arena-ready tracks that may have indie nerds grooving next to some babes at bigger venues this year. And if only indie nerds show up, I think Krug can probably conjure some spell that can change that…
- matthew hunt
