At Mount Zoomer

Wolf Parade | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 17, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sub Pop
• ASIN: B0017U09N0
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,775 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Their second album for Sub Pop (following 2005's "Apologies To The Queen Mary") might just be this generation's "Marquee Moon" or an indie rock "Chinese Democracy" released thirty years early. Better though, to think of it as the sound of a band edging forward into a wispy darkness, one hand reaching out, the other firmly clutching the past.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Look Deeper, June 17, 2008

By 

Kenyon J. Weidle "old soul" (Omaha, NE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At Mount Zoomer (Audio CD)

When I first heard At Mount Zoomer, I was a little disappointed. It didn't seem to have the instant POP of Wolf Parade's first album, Apologies To The Queen Mary. That album broke onto the scene with gritty, electronically tinged rock songs that contained enough pop sensibility to appease any ear. At Mount Zoomer sounded like they were trying to repeat that effort, but with less success.

And then I listened again. And again. And again.

It became apparent that the album is more complicated than that.

Language City is gem. It opens with an excellent guitar riff and then enters the drums, the piano, and once a furious rhythm is established familiar synth buzzes through the air. They then break it down into a transcendent, hope-filled finish echoing, "We are not at home."

Exactly, the band is somewhere else now. Wolf Parade seems more concerned with the timing and progression of their songs.

"California Dreamer" starts strange with hopping bass and synth like a hypnopompic hallucination. The song then jumps into a psychedelic jam and finally ends leaving little of that initial strangeness resolved.

This oddity is followed by the cheery "The Grey Estates" wiping away the cobwebs of "California Dreamer."

"Fine Young Cannibals" follows with brooding guitar parts. Again the flow established in the previous song is interrupted. The song evolves into another dreamlike jam and the result is superb.

I could go on but I think I made my point. There is a surreal character in the album created by the shifting moods. Wolf Parade seamlessly moves between otherworldly jams and hallucitory peaks and valleys. The result epic in scope, though not as immediately accessible as Apologies. However, Zoomer is a much more interesting listen. Fans of Apologies who give the album a close and scrutinizing listen will discover a new world here. And it's a fun and mesmerizing place.

I can't finish this review without noting that album ends fantastically with Kissing the Beehive Pt 1 and 2.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, January 7, 2009

By 

S. Harding (Jersey suburbs) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At Mount Zoomer (Audio CD)

I ordered this CD and put it in my daughter's stocking for Christmas this year. She's very happy with the CD.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh how good they are, September 26, 2008

By 

Katherine Escelbach "KatKatherine" (NY,NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At Mount Zoomer (Audio CD)

I have loved wolf parade for since the first note i heard, this album has only increased my love for them. If you can see them live, amazing.