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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My apologies!, February 27, 2006
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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Two-Headed Wolf is Better Than One , February 25, 2006
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Apologies to no one, March 20, 2007
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.
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