Wolf Parade’s 2005 debut Apologies to the Queen Mary was a rough masterpiece, intriguing for its loose orchestration of chaotic guitar riffs, squeaking theramins, and broken rhythms. Every song on that album was worth listening to: it offered an animalesque and desolate kind of rock that somehow, with its mechanical, atmospheric sounds and howled lyrics, made it seem like music had finally caught up to the 21st century. After one listen of Wolf Parade’s latest release AtMount Zoomer, though, Apologies seems like a mere sketch, like the bare bones of what this band is capable of creating. In this new, perfected opus, Wolf Parade displays maturity in songwriting and skill in creating incredibly complex, layered songs that swell to epic proportions. Apologies, which once seemed just about as good as a band could possibly get, now seems like the charming dabblings of genius: a damn good practice run, but practice nonetheless.
The quality difference between the two albums is acquired thanks to the careful usage of a cleaner sound that the band has managed to achieve without losing the dirtiness of their interlacing guitar riffs. The precision that they now place in their songwriting really shines through: it allows a listener’s ear to trace each layer of sound as it surfaces to drive the melody forward, only to be submerged again a few moments later, remaining barely audible beneath a new shower of melodies and rhythms. And yet, if you step back and listen to the song as a whole, without breaking it into its many extraordinary elements, it sounds all the more expansive and climactic. A quick look at the running time of their songs makes their confidence with this new sound obvious: almost all of the nine tracks are over four minutes long (with “Kissing the Beehive”, the closing masterwork, filling almost eleven whole minutes with mind-blowing music), and none of them are boring or repetitive. Each track has a unique and growing melody, garnished with some of the best instrumental transitions you’ve heard this decade.
On top of it all, Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner still split the vocals, the former providing his signature yelp-sing, while the latter brings his gripping howl to the table. Their collaborative effort is definitely audible in every song, even as their two sounds meld together so seamlessly: Krug makes sure the pacing is right and the sound desolate enough (he certainly brings a lot of what he learned in the past couple years with his other project, Sunset Rubdown, with him), while Boeckner transforms every tune into a powerful and driven rock song. Their teamwork is most obvious in “An Animal in Your Care”, which starts with the solitary vocals typical of Sunset Rubdown and slowly transforms into a massive, anthemic song, rippling with heavily distorted guitar solos.
While still sticking to a cohesive sound and structure that makes this album a pleasure to listen to from beginning to end, Wolf Parade also tries some new things in At Mount Zoomer. “The Grey Estates” is their first genuine pop song, and “California Dreamer” opens with a keyboard lick that sounds like it’s from the soundtrack to C.S.I. (but in a very, very good way). “Kissing the Beehive,” on the other hand, would be just as good if they played it as an instrumental. However, the band also sticks to some poignantly classic Wolf Parade sounds, epitomized in the album’s standout track, “Fine Young Cannibals”, which features a jerky guitar riff that will stay in your head for hours after you listen to it.
