Indie rockers unite: the debut album by Montreal natives Wolf Parade represents the mysterious genre at its finest. Produced by Isaac Brock, lead singer of Modest Mouse, "Apologies to the Queen Mary" demonstrates a heavy influence from the kings of indie, but also manages to craft an image of its own through creative lyrics and instrumental variety.
Every piece to the formula for a quality full-length album is present: a steady, driving beat backing up freestyle guitars and keyboard and strained but never-faltering vocals. This apparent conventionality does not detract from the album's originality, however. Like any great indie rock album, "Apologies" begins by establishing a unifying mood, and the following 11 songs take that mood and find a way to create strikingly different variations.
Another must-have feature for any aspiring indie band seems to be a sort of indistinguishable, stream of consciousness lyrical style. Not many sober listeners would understand what is meant by such songs as "I'll Believe in Anything," with lyrics such as, "If I could take the fire out from the wire / I'd share a life and you'd share a life / If I could take the fire out from the wire / I'd take you where nobody knows you and / Nobody gives a damn." No one can say that these unusual lyrics are bad - rather, they are left open to interpretation from stoners and poetry buffs alike.
On the other hand, the album's strangeness may limit the range of fans that Wolf Parade will reach. Those listeners who think they like indie music because they have heard Modest Mouse's "Float On" and Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" are in for a rude awakening.
These hits are certainly aberrations within the "true" style of independent music, which is hard to classify given the genre's traditionally low visibility. Radio and television airtime only add undue labels and generalizations to these bands, which soon turn to epitaphs as their shelf lives diminish and the trend passes them by.
Although the band has thus far avoided this trap, those that say Wolf Parade pushes the envelope and challenges other indie bands to live up to their skillful blend of poetry and melodies are both right and wrong.
Whereas this album does really stand out as one of the best of the year, it is very likely that several better albums have come out under the radar that would put "Apologies" to shame. Due to their innate "indie-ness," these albums have not escaped their local scenes.
Take, for example, Autopassion, the indie pop gods of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This band starts with what The Strokes tried to accomplish and makes it smoother, catchier and, maybe one day, more popular. The beauty of the indie "scene" is that there is no cohesive scene - there are simply too many talented musicians to know about them all.
Overall, "Apologies" is a great accomplishment and well deserving of a positive review, but it is too much to say that it will start a revolution, evolution or even a cult following.
If you are a Modest Mouse fan who thinks the new album has made them too mainstream, however, the vibe from their better years lives on in Wolf Parade. In fact, between the various falsetto harmonies you might even occasionally forget which band you are listening to.
Of course, if this review isn't convincing enough, the band was nice enough to post a "Myspace" Web page, complete with mp3 streams for your previewing pleasure. But do not stop here. The full effect of "Apologies" is not felt without the context of the entire album. This one is certainly worth the trip to Newbury Comics.
