Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer

The follow up to the massively acclaimed debut Apologies to the Queen Marry, At Mount Zoomer is a highly anticipated album this year in indie circles, well at least the ones reading Pitchfork and Drowned in Sound. Wolf Parade came out of the blue with their debut album and it grew to be a massive hit. It grew on me a lot in the coming years; I still play it on and off now, but now onto the follow up At Mount Zoomer.

This leaked quite some time ago now and I decided to withhold judgment on it until I had listened to it quite a few times. This was for a few reasons, one being that Wolf Parade have never been immediate to my ears. Also maybe not many people care what I think.

At Mount Zoomer has the usual Wolf Parade sound of echo drenched vocals and lonely yet full of life instrumentation. There is a ye olde feel to most of these songs that I think comes from the feel of the vocals. The tunes aren’t as high octane and energetic as they were on Apologies to the Queen Marry. Wolf Parade have matured a little and smoothed at the edges, maybe even gone a little progressive rock well not quite but hay who knows, as yet I am undecided if this is good or bad. The album doesn’t hit me right between the eyes as a classic right away, but then as I said before the debut didn’t either and I have grown to love it very much.

The stand out tracks so far for me are the recently put up for download number Call it a Ritual, Language City, California Dreamer, Fine Young Cannibals, An Animal In Your Care and Kissing The Beehive, I don’t know if this means I’m a Spencer Krug or Dan Boeckner man and quite frankly who cares. The album is full of really good songs and non of them disappoint at all, the epic number Kissing The Beehive ends it all in grand style.

At Mount Zoomer will no doubt please many Wolf Parade fans it’s not a huge departure and no one really wanted a departure either. The front cover makes me chuckle for some reason it kind of looks bad but in a good way, it maybe sums up my feeling on this album I’m not sure. I’m a little under whelmed by it all, but then a slow burner can make you love it in years to come. It’s a beautiful piece of work to add to the brilliant back catalogue. Songs to make you feel like you’re in the wilderness all alone except for your very tired best mates who happen to be in an ace indie band from Canada, laid back and opening a beer wearily.