Honestly, I haven’t met a single person who hasn’t been touched by this album having heard it. Wolf Parade is exquisitely human, which makes Apologies to the Queen Mary both comforting and unnerving. My moment comes in the song Grounds of Divorce>

Said you hate the sound of the buses on the ground
Said you hate the way they scrape their brakes all over town
I said, “Pretend it’s whales, keeping their voices down.”
Such were the grounds for divorce, I know.

With humanity like that, excellent control of rhythm, a certain raw feel to their vocals and impeccable production, if you’ve ever thought about listening to indie music, I say you should start here.

The follow-up: Discovered you liked Wolf Parade? Check out a more lighthearted Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or lead singer Spencer Krug’s other musical project Sunset Rubdown.

The control of rhythm that this band has is amazing. Holy shit. I can’t listen to “Fancy Claps” without going absolutely crazy. This whole album makes me crazy….delightfully so.

My favourite musical discovery of last year has to be Wolf Parade. The driving rhythms of the drums and guitars combine with odd stories to create something that I alway love hearing. On Apologies to the Queen Mary each of the songs work well and the more I listen to it, the more I hear and the more I like it. My favourite tracks are the driving opening song, “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son” which starts with great drums and has a wonderful musical progression, the poppy “Shine a Light” and “I’ll Believe in Anything” which has the memorable chorus of

Nobody knows you and nobody gives a damn.

The vocals are distinctive and it’s a great mix of drums, guitar and synthesizer to have a fun sound that is also a bit more intellectual if you listen to the lyrics. I enjoy the little musical journeys that each song take me on.

This band opened for Arcade Fire when I saw them, but I only experienced them through a small television in the bar that was designed to let us know whether or not a band was on stage and wasn’t really that good at portraying the quality of the band since it was on mute.

Over the next couple months I heard their name mentioned a few more times and yesterday when I decided to buy something off of the Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of the Year I decided to buy their album. Mostly because I was at the office and know that Ivan loves Modest Mouse and they are sometimes compared with said band and I can sort of see why they’re compared to that band even though they apparently hate said comparison. My other coworkers should buy other albums off of the Pitchfork list too, shouldn’t they? It was a good choice because even after only a couple listens I’m really enjoying this album… the first song especially.