Oracle Online

So here we expect such over-hyped, over-inflated expectations to come crashing down in a disaster of an effort. The band here is Wolf Parade, coming from a current hotbed of indie talent, Montreal. They have befriended names like fellow Canadians The Arcade Fire, toured with such legends as Modest Mouse.
They have even gotten Modest Mouse lead singer and guitarist Isaac Brock to help record their debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, for release on Seattle-based Sub Pop Records. This list of connections has garnered the band endless pre-release press and expectations beyond anything a new act should be expected to match.

How do stories like this usually end? Too much hype. Too many expectations. They end with a band that can never live up to what the media has made them out to be. Their careers flop. Their debut drowns.

So I lowered my expectations. No band can live up to that sort of pressure, can they?

Apparently they can. My lowered expectations have been exceeded. For that matter, my heightened expectations may have been surpassed as well. Apologies to the Queen Mary is perhaps worth all of the hype surrounding it, living up to expectations in ways I did not think possible.

Wolf Parade is an interesting sound. Not a you’ve-never-heard-anything-like-this sound, but more of a you’ve-never-heard-anything-like-this-done-so-well type of thing. Comparisons come from all over to other members of the Montreal scene like The Arcade Fire and Frog Eyes, or other Canadian bands like
Broken Social Scene. Now while these bands do share some similarities with Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes
could never approach the cohesion of the songs on Apologies to the Queen Mary, and those other acts can only dream of having the energy that this album has. Maybe critics just love their ability to list Canadian acts as references.

The influence of older Modest Mouse can be felt in Apologies, especially on tracks like “Grounds for Divorce.” The album features some more traditional indie rock with the fun addition of some great synth lines, but not in any sort of dance-pop way. Wolf Parade definitely sticks to the rock part of their sound, but they avoid the tedium of acts like The Arcade Fire whose string of uninspired ballads tires much more quickly than their inflated image warrants. Apologies manages to hold your attention by varying the tempo by alternating between the bands two singers and blending the more upbeat with the more heartfelt of tracks.

This debut is not perfect, as is evidenced by the second track, “Modern World,” which has no real redeeming musical value and features perhaps the most drab vocals on the album. But such low points are easily overshadowed by the deliciously catchy keyboards on songs like “We Built Another World,” or by simultaneously moving and depressing moments like “I’ll Believe in Anything.” The highlight of the album may be “Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts,” an incredibly well-written piece that highlights the band’s dual vocals as well as their apparent fascination with ghosts, a theme prevalent throughout the album for whatever reasons.

Just by coming close to living up to the impossible hype surrounding its release, Apologies to the Queen Mary makes itself well worth the effort. While it may not be the most groundbreaking work in indie today, it does come much closer to perfecting its methods than any of the acts flooding the market today have been able to. Due partly to its brilliance and mostly to the lack of talent making headlines, Wolf Parade’s full-length debut ranks as one of the top picks of the year so far.