Customer Reviews

Apologies to the Queen Mary (Dig)

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Stop the madness! Wolf Parade vs. Arcade Fire vs. Modest Mouse vs. Tom Waits vs. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah vs. Wilco vs. Bloc Party vs. The Decemberist vs. M Ward vs. Franz Ferdinand vs. everything else you can imagine. Oh yeah, and Dan Bejar sounds like David Bowie, and George Bush is Einstein.

Wolf Parade is a fine album. Listen to it and decide for yourself; they sound like Clay Aiken eating a doughnut in France on a Wednesday in spring on a park bench next to an old lady with a blue hat who smells musty.

I heard the first buzz from Wolf Parade (from another Subpop group) months before their album landed in the indie media's lap.

By the next time I'd heard of them, they were being hailed as the Next Great Thing, with their quirky, catchy pop music and off-kilter vocals. They are also massively hyped as the next big indie thing, after Arcade Fire and alongside Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Fortunately they are also enormous fun to listen to -- think the dancier little brother of Modest Mouse.

"Apologies to the Queen Mary" opens with a clamorous drum solo that sets up a "boom da boom" carnival sound. Then the oddball sound is completed when Spencer Krug starts warbling that you are a runner, and he is his father's son. I can't quite make out what he's saying except for those lines, but it's a wonderfully colorful song that gets grounded by some gritty guitar.

Having successfully hooked in the listener, they segue into transcendent guitar pop, bouncy indie rock that will have you tapping your foot, shimmery ballads, synthy dance melodies, and mournful rock song that slowly waltzes around in a flutter of electric organ. "Same Ghost Every Night" is the peak of this album, and that sound should be explored in future albums.

It ends with the upbeat-sounding, but sad-themed "This Heart's on Fire," where Dan Boeckner does his best imitation with Beck. It's a raw, painful song under all the catchiness, since it is apparently about the death of Boeckner's mother, and you can hear the sorrow in his voice as he sings.

No, it's not genius, and the media will seize another hot young band soon. But Wolf Parade may well be around without them, because they have enough weirdness and musical skill to stick in your mind after the album ends. And instead of a signature sound, they explore different kinds of songs -- mostly with success.

Rather than trying for catchiness alone, they weave the catchiness with waves of sound and a folky edge. Buzzing guitars get to mesh with carnival twinkling and sweeps of electronic organ, and form madly complex, colorful pop tunes... which just happen to be catchy. Think Olivia Tremor Control meets Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

Krug and Boeckner share vocal duty on various songs, and I have to say I prefer Boeckner's raw, smooth voice. Krug's voice tends toward a melodramatic warble. When he's singing, he seems to destabilize the songs he's in, while Boeckner does the reverse.

While Krug's warbly voice will be a turnoff for some, "Apologies to the Queen Mary" is a fun, colorful pop album, and definitely something worth checking out. Hype or no hype.

Now I hate name-dropping popular bands to describe other new bands. It's really not fair to the guys being described, and it's rarely accurate. So let me try to explain how freakin' sweet Wolf Parade is with a minimum of references . . .

Their sound is a mix of droning, driving rock and serene, spaced-out bliss. The vocals are themed around the notions of people's souls as ghosts that constantly surround us and affect us. The two lead singers take alternate songs that can be soothing, edgy, grooving, but ALWAYS catchy. Seriously, these guys make you want to sing along to anything.

If you have to compare Wolf Parade to past influences, I'd say they reflect the best of David Bowie, Talking Heads, The Pixies and (of course) Modest Mouse.

However, these guys deserved to be judged on their own merit, on their own songs. And they are freakin' sweet songs.

Best Album of 2005, with a close second going to M. Ward's Transistor Radio.

The Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock connection, the David Bowiesque vocals, the Arcade Fire friendship. Yep, all true, but the real story is the music on Wolf Parade's debut, Apologies to the Queen. The opening track, "You Are a Runner and I am My Father's Son" kicks off with hypnotic "boom... da-dum-da, boom... da-dum-da " percussion that plunges the listener into a circus-like bliss (unfortunately not repeated elsewhere). Then the creativity waters down a little before re-surging on track 5, "Fancy Claps." Appropriately titled for its deliciously placed clap-along at the end, this is the fastest song on the album and the only one to dip its toes in punk. But the real, real story is the dueling sing-off between the alternating writers/lead vocalists/frontmen: Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner. Up until the early underground favorite, "Shine a Light" (track 7-written and sung by Boeckner), the better and more exciting vocalist, Krug, is the victor. But from "Shine a Light" on, it's the more insightful and passionate Boeckner who rallies. On the final track, "This Heart's on Fire," sounding a tad like Beck, Boeckner wails with transparent pain about his mother's passing, but tries to cheer himself up by repeating "It's getting better all the time" over and over. Since both leading men seem to draw on vastly different experiences, they essentially produced two intertwined albums in one. If the Krug/Boeckner collaboration can live with that and not allow their egos to strangle their music's pathos, fans can probably expect an exquisite follow-up.

An attempt to pigeonhole this remarkable LP from Wolf Parade will, as the previous reviews have shown us, prove to be a remarkably frustrating task. Their contemporaries and friends can be heard on almost every track, if one is listening for them. Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock participated in recording almost every track on the album, and Mouse fans everywhere will have no trouble seeing his stamp on the record.

The obvious comparisons to The Arcade Fire are getting a little old. Funeral was an amazing album, but using it as a measuring stick for any subsequent release that sounds even remotely similar is inane. Therefore, no future reference to TAF will be made here (Just go buy the album, you won't regret it).

2005 will have to go down as the year that the hyped albums lived up to the hype, and surprised us all. The new Broken Social Scene was amazing, and even Death Cab came out with a solid release. This is another of the hyped-up albums this year that really came through with flying colors.

"Apologies to the Queen Mary" is a title that relates last to fall, when WP was in California, touring the British war ship while it was moored there. Apparently one of the band members decided, while on the tour, to kick a hole in one of the dining room walls. Instead of deciding (as all upstanding members of society should) to turn a blind eye and let rock stars do whatever the hell they want, the captain of the ship had them kicked off and banned. Hilarious. Now...to the music.

Expect to find, in this album, all the conventions of the new wave of Canadian indie rock. Spastic vocals (done remarkably well by duo Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug), overworked danelelectrico guitars, great keyboard work, and at LEAST two fried powerbook processors. I really do feel bad for the computers here...they were put through the gauntlet making this record.

Wolf Parade have really done something special with Apologies. Standout tracks include "Grounds for Divorce," a refreshing look at the rebellion against technology that is so hip lately and "Dear Sons and Daughters of Angry Ghosts," a Frog Eyes-esque tune that seems to leave me in a good mood after every listen. The best on the record, IMO, is "I'll Believe in Anything." This track combines all the best elements of the record. Poppy, 80's synth, a cadence that begs to be listened to, and lyrics that perfectly match the song. Sublime.

I'll just go ahead and agree with everyone else that this is one of the outstanding releases of 2005. Its fun without being stupid, happy without being annoying, and hyped without being pretentious. Any album that can walk that line deserves my respect. Highly Recommened

this isn't ground breaking, in fact it's quite obvious isaac brock produced this, but it's fun and on a whole pretty good. definitely worth burning from a friend at the very least

Oh man. I was talking up this band at a party a week or so ago, and it occured to me just now that I was calling them Wolf-mother. Oh man, man. I hope that whoever I was talking to realizes my mistake...

Wolf PARADE is the band that I was speaking of. This album in particular, which I bought myself on a tip about a year or so ago. While the band is undoubtedly 21st century rock, with certain electro pop numbers like MODERN WORLD and the occasional goth slash emo slash men can be sensitive too vibe that floods most of the rock and roll scene these days (Offended? Text me.) there is still a very solid hard rock vibe throughout. (Like, the kind that could totally bitch-slap Nickleback and Linkin Park...)

Whats good about Wolf Parade is that they manage to create an album, where one song doesn't equal the entire bands output. There is a degree in variation between one song and the next... YET the album makes a point in keeping the album in flow. While the vocals may get on the wrong side of the razor blade from time to time, the band rocks out, and actually has a few feel good tunes, and once in a while even a sense of humor... plus most of the songs have some nice and punchy drums. Not studio produced sound effects. My fave songs are the opening track, YOU ARE A RUNNER,,, and SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF HUNGRY GHOSTS...

I like this album. My only thing is that the songs that are hits on this album are the best songs, and there's only 3 or 4 of those. They rocked, but the whole album isn't solid. I would still buy this cd over and over though.

Reading earlier reviews for "Apologies to the Queen Mary", it seems like if you like Wolf Parade, you hate The Arcade Fire and if you like The Arcade Fire, you hate Wolf Parade. Personally, I don't get it. I enjoy them both. Now I don't think either of these bands are the greatest thing to happen to music (I'm not giving this 5 stars and shouting their praises) but 1 star reviews? C'mon. Let's be honest. There's plenty of 1 star material out there and this is not it.

They've got some truly good songs on this debut. "Same Ghost Every Night", "I'll Believe in Anything" and "Grounds For Divorce" to name a few. And I can't forget to mention the excellent "Dinner Bells" which is possibly the best song on the album in my opinion.

As for the singer...well, I've never really liked pitch perfect vocalists so while Wolf Parade's vocals may turn some listeners off, I enjoy it's rough, imperfect qualities. The reviewer below me described it perfectly: ramshackle and heartfelt. So give this band a listen (or two or three) and decide for yourself.

I love this album. If you dont own it, there may be something wrong with you. The only track that is not perfect is You'll believe in anything, and the only reason it isnt perfect is because the Sunset Rubdown version is so much better. I like Spencer Krug, and I think that for my taste, this is his most focused and overal pleasing work. One more thing, for you old farts like me that were around when Dino Jr. broke up and Lou Barlow formed Sebadoh... I almost get the same feelings listening to Wolf Parade as I did Sebadoh. Not that they sound anything alike, but the creativity, and uniqueness of both are just so so inspiring and awesome to hear.