After writing three album reviews on this site, I realize how much I hate affixing numbers to them. After all, a number-based system won’t work at all for this blog. Here are a few reasons why:
1) I listen to music that I believe I will like
2) I am too open to music to outwardly dislike something
3) Taking these into consideration, the average rating will be very high
4) Also, I really don’t want to put the effort into writing about an album I didn’t particularly enjoy.
With that in mind, I continue to the album I want to talk about now:
Out of any album I’ve listened to this year, no album has been played more than Enemy Mine. Why? Here’s why:
In high school, we are always taught to start our essay with an attention-getter; something to engage our reader. On this album, that opening paragraph comes in the form of “Spanish Gold, 2044.” It begins with leisurely guitar triads and thumping drums before descending into Carey Mercer’s land of lyrical madness. “Where you gonna run when the clouds break?” Mercer prophesies. It’s all further downhill from there as the song spirals through further swirling arpeggi. The mic then passes to Krug for the ballad “Paper Lace,” possibly Krug’s poppiest to date, yet Krug manages to inject it with his own signature lyrical flair.
Bejar picks up for “Heartswarm,” a song with a soft ballad facade to mask the angry, passive-aggressive lyrics reminiscent of Destroyer, as one would expect from him. (Really, if you take Destroyer and mix it with weirder music, it still sounds like Destroyer, because that’s just how Dan Bejar is.) Then comes “Settle On Your Skin,” another Krug number that features his mad keyboard skills.
Each song on this album is a gem; something that I can rarely say about an album. Each lead singer manages to bring their own level of epic to their creations, but Mercer in particular shines on this record. If you remember “Bushels” from Frog Eyes’ last album, imagine how epic that was, then compress that epic into about four to five minutes, then repeat it thrice. You now have heard “Spanish Gold, 2044,” “Peace,” and “Warlock Psychologist.” Mercer’s wails, whoops, and hollers cannot be ignored. He commands that you listen, and you LISTEN.
Where “Beast Moans” was an impressive debut from a new Canadian Indie Rock collective, “Enemy Mine” will surely establish Bejar, Mercer, and Krug as the Canadian Indie Rock Triumvirate, both as Swan Lake and in their own individual projects.
In other Canadian indie news, Sunset Rubdown’s new album is dropping on June 23. This album will be more than enough to tide us over until then.
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