89. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005)

Wolf Parade stand at the center of a dizzying number of Canadian indie rock groups such as Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake and the Handsome Furs and while a little more palatable, this stuff is much the same: synthy indie rock fronted by Dan Boeckner and/or Spencer Krug, both of whom sound like bleating goats and neither of whom I can distinguish from the other. This album is notably less "polished" than later albums but it's a lot less boring (their 2010 album Expo 86 is one of the most boring, pointless albums I've ever heard in my life). Listening to stuff like this only confirms my suspicion that the Talking Heads were the most important and influential rock group of the postpunk era: this stuff is basically Speaking in Tongues-era Heads with a little less synth and dance influence. The vocalists sound like nerds, the music is herky-jerky and angular and weird little synth noises poke in and out of the music occasionally--not enough to dance to but enough to make it so the band isn't just labeled a "punk" band. Do I like it? I do, sometimes--"Shine a Light" is great fist-pumping rock, "We Built Another World" has a great arrangement and is lyrically fascinating, and "I'll Believe in Anything" is a near-epochal single, the kind of thing that would have sounded perfect on a mid-90s modern rock station coming between Nirvana and Cake and and the Toadies and so forth. What it does it does very well, although it's a little retrograde--it's the same old modern rock stuff dressed up in a new outfit. But that's fine, and when there are enough great songs as there are on this album, I'm willing to forgive just about anything.

MY RATING: 7.8

Wolf Parade - "It's a Curse"