Wolf Parade New Album

Wolf Parade

Recorded and engineered by drummer Arlen Thompson, legions of bearded, sweater-vested critics will want to file this yet-untitled new album under "Prog Rock" because it doesn't offer up sugary cast-offs for the short-attention-span set. It's suggested this might be this generation's Marquee Moon (Television), or an indie rock Chinese Democracy (Guns 'n' Roses) released 30 years early and 60 million dollars under budget (and without cornrows, to boot) - a band edging forward into a wispy darkness, one hand reaching out, the other firmly clutching the past.

Singer-guitarist Dan Boeckner says, "After Apologies we wrote about four or five new songs, but we decided to throw them out because they sounded too much like what we'd already done. We could have easily made another Apologies but what would have been the point?"

Instead, the band committed itself to a period of experimentation, recording long improvisational sessions in the Montreal church owned by Arcade Fire. These tracks were then cut and pasted into discrete compositions. The result is a complex matrix of unfussy components and modules. From the nimble opening strains of "Soldier's Grin" to the eleven-minute aggro dirge of "Kissing the Beehive," they hand authority of the songs around among them with a refreshing absence of ownership.

Where Apologies could be read as a good-natured, sweaty volleyball match between Boeckner and singer-keyboardist Spencer Krug, the new album shows the band as a fully coordinated moving front. This collaboration isn't just a work ethic - the band's many offshoots, side projects, and domestic ventures have taken each of them far from their home base in Montreal for extended periods, compressing their time as a functioning unit. "It's hard enough to get us all in the same room at the same time," Krug said of the band's approach, "so when we do get to write songs there isn't really time for our egos to get in the way."