I really wasn’t keen on the last Wolf Parade album, but I like this one much better.  The first was released about the time that Broken Social Scene, the New Pornographers and various others were leading something of an explosion of Canadian bands onto the scene, and all the talk was of these loose-knit collectives which seemed to spawn endless musical projects with a variety of combinations of members.

Wolf Parade themselves came from situation in Vancouver that was lumped into a similar box, although despite comprising former members of Frog Eyes and Hot Hot Heat, I never got the impression that it was quite the same thing.

The sound is very much what I would describe as characteristic blog rock.  Yelping vocals, delivered with a bit of spirit, with a sort of crunchy, awkward guitar sound underneath, and a spot of synthy organ for good measure.  It’s not my favourite album of the year by any means, but songs like Call it a Ritual and California Dreamer really are excellent.  Others might not quite hit the spot as much, but there are a lot of things on this album that I really like.

Without meaning to be derogatory, I get the impression that this is a record that will provide me with a lot of fodder for mixes and playlists, without necessarily being one that I play in its entirety all that often.  I like it a lot more than the last one though, which seems like a good sign to me.

Wolf Parade – Call it a Ritual
Wolf Parade – California Dreamer

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