Plants And Animals

Parc Avenue

(Secret City)

4 Stars

Knock it off, Montreal. Just stop it. Stop being so cool.

Plants and Animals’ debut album comes in a gatefold sleeve that opens up to a triptych aerial view of the band’s Montreal neighbourhood, a place no doubt rife with artists’ co-ops and corner groceries, where stringy-haired indie-rockers walk as gods on Earth and American Apparel is so 2005.

After opening with the short and punchy “Bye Bye Bye,” Parc Avenue quickly heads straight into tracks lasting six and seven minutes. I was a little worried that the increasingly epic song lengths and worrisomely Zeppelin-esque titles (“Faerie Dance”?) were harbingers of intolerable noodling to come.

Not to worry, though. Yes, there’s more than a little tie-dye in P&A’s closet—the band’s history as a jam outfit is obvious not only in their nimble instrumentals, but also in the unexpected directions their songs take. But like Gomez and the Super Furry Animals before them, they rein in their long-winded tendencies without losing their ambitious, muscular musicality (a quality so often lacking in indie rock). Especially notable are “Mercy,” with its shouty choral breakdown, and the sly “Good Friend.”

I could make fun of P&A for being just another bunch of Mile End Anglo hipsters, but they’re just too damn good. Damn you, Montreal. Damn you.

PETRA I. BOSKO

Los Campesinos

Hold On Now, Youngster...

(Arts & Crafts)

3 1/2 Stars

My conversational Spanish may be nonexistent, but my ability to translate Spanish vocab on the Internet is masterful. So, in case you’re wondering, “Los Campesinos” means “The Peasants” or “The Farmers”—a deceptive name for this musically rich septet of Welsh indie-poppers. Hold On Now, Youngster... is one of the latest releases from Toronto’s Arts & Crafts label (who brought you The Dears, Feist, and Broken Social Scene). Los Campesinos create an energetic BSS-style ambience, but they go beyond simply making pretty textures with the syncopated, upbeat rhythms of “Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats” and “Don’t Tell Me to Do the Math(s).” Their name might be misleading, but the track “You! Me! Dancing!” is exactly the imperative it appears to be: “Pne thing I can never confess/Is that I can’t dance a single step.” Maybe not an axiom, but definitely an encouraging message for bedroom dancers everywhere.

CHRIS LEWIS 

ERYKAH BADU

New Amerykah

(Universal/Motown)

2 1/2 Stars

On the surface, Badu’s latest is a jazzy affair. But while you perambulate in the coffee shop to the atmospheric jams that Madlib, SA-RA, and even Roy Ayers lay down for her, you might choke on your chai chiller—especially during “Me.” “So I salute you Farrakhan,” she sings, “because you are me.” Uh-oh. 

Through “Soldier,” “The Cell,” and “Telephone,” Badu tells the story of “The 4th World War” that she says we’re all living through. Only the outstanding soul salvo “The Healer” presses a message you haven’t heard 6,000 times before: “It’s bigger than religion. Hip hop. It’s bigger than ‘Ma Nigga.’ Hip hop.”

It’s nice to hear Badu isn’t peddling a faux-Timbaland pseudo-electro thing, nor brain-numbing easy-listening R&B, but there’s nothing here that’s going to make you call your friends and say, “Goddamn, that’s the best hip hop jam I’ve ever heard. The world is fucked. Let’s start a riot.” What’s Going On this ain’t.

PROSPER PRODANIUK 

Ghost House

The Good Ghost House

(Reluctant)
3 1/2 Stars

Halfway through their four-EP series entitled These Are The Good Old Year, Vancouver bicycle enthusiasts Ghost House turn out four quick blasts of quirky, catchy, piano-driven power pop. Comprised of fallout from veteran left-coast bands like DBS, Witness Protection Program, and Black Rice, Ghost House’s teenage summer-punk sound is as finely polished as the rims on their tenspeeds. Easygoing production lends the tracks a playful feel, complete with drumstick count-ins and between-take shouts. Plunking keyboards flirt with New Wave guitar on the album closer, “No Enemies,” leaving listeners champin’ at the bit for the band’s next offering. An additional treat is the built-in “bored” game you can build when you puzzle all the digipacks together. Who will save the cute forest creatures from the menacing bear? Who will save Ghost House from certain peril? Who will grab me a beer? Adventure is just a roll of the dice away. 

TRAVIS SARGENT