Fire in the hole! Reviews of Wolf Parade's At Mt. Zoomer

"Criticizing the Critics!" How circular. Meta.
Fire in the Hole!
Fire in the Hole!
Fire in the Hole!

"Whereas Apologies to the Queen Mary closed with an unimpeachable tract of songs, from "Shine a Light" on, At Mount Zoomer fizzles and sags after its sixth track-- the record's grueling backend culminates with the contentious, 11-minute "Kissing the Beehive", a stubbornly unmelodic finale marked by a mush of throbbing guitars and histrionic vocals (ironically, it's the only track that Krug and Boeckner co-wrote). At Mount Zoomer is fractured and spastic, and at times, the band's ambition eclipses its strengths. Still, there's something about Wolf Parade's fragility that's profoundly relatable, and the sense that the entire operation could fall apart at any second-- that we're all tottering on the brink of total dissolution-- is as thrilling as it terrifying."
-Amanda Petrusich, Pitchforkmedia.com - 7.7/10

Firstly, I wonder how Ms. Petrusich can give this album such a safe and mediocre rating of 7.7 out of 10.0 yet describe the "entire operation" of the album as both "thrilling and terrifying." It sounds like she is easily excited. Secondly, her review of the latter half of the album demonstrates a gross amount of laziness on her part. I wonder if she listened even more than once if not at all? I would also argue that 11-minute epic "Kissing the Beehive" is not contentious nor "histrionic." What does that word even mean? It is not honorable to replace the use of simple prose with complex vocabulary to make a point. This review re-hashes a bunch of rhetoric about Apologies to Queen Mary and then quickly cherry-picks various words in the lyrics to paint gross-generalizations about the thematic tone of the album. What a load of rubbish.

(A brief history of Pitchfork in 2008 - First lauding undue praise on Vampire Weekend & Crystal Castles then canning Wolf Parade through mediocrity. Three strikes your out. Arrest 'em! And enough with the child predator glasses)

"Even “Kissing the Beehive,” a gasping outro that sort of takes the idea of a Boeckner/Krug duet to its illogical extreme, works perfectly with its Spector-drum riff, spiralling guitar squalls, and kind-of-funny backing vocals. And that vaguely cinematic riff that rolls over the middle cinches the whole melodrama of the piece together in a way that screams “seriously” and “don’t take it so seriously” in the same breath. Either/or, right? Except “Kissing the Beehive” makes it hard to know where one starts and the other begins, and Wolf Parade in general are making it increasingly hard to talk about this band like it’s urban/rural, modern/anti-modern, or Boeckner/Krug."

"In retrospect the album title almost makes sense: Wolf Parade express a longing for a fantasy world that maybe only they still dream of, one they can only grasp through the release of making music, and so in name At Mount Zoomer declares, “Here we are, standing on our peak, happy in this moment, at the studio that our drummer made with his own two hands.” Whether you like it more or less than their debut, this album means that in 2008 this band lives on despite their hype and despite the way they’ve been constructed in indie fandom. They’re just Wolf Parade, fucking shit up for breakfast."
-Mark Abraham, Cokemachineglow.com - 84% out 100%

Mr. Abraham's review of the album is too cluttered and long-winded to even bother reading (even though I did....). I understand that "editing" can sometimes tarnish the unique voice of a writer, but Cokemachineglow is overwhelmed with reviews that read like first drafts of essays written by second year college students in a class titled "Contemporary Musical Pop Culture as a Lens into the Collective Psyche of the North American Ethno-Social Diaspora." A bunch of academic wankery. It would be more appropriate to consider a track review of "Fine Young Cannibals" on Cokemachineglow:

"The changes are subtle but decided: keyboards higher in the mix, a limber, confident pace, less eager to set your heart aflame and more eager to release a strong record. Which they do pretty handily, as it turns out, because this is Wolf Parade. It feels like them. It sounds like them. Two years ago they may’ve opened with the caterwauling climax, but here they wait four minutes to turn resolutely anthemic, Boeckner bellowing “There’s nothing here,” before letting the song drift away like a ribbon down a highway. It’s a model of restraint, easily one of 2008’s finest indie rock songs, and probably the least impressive track on At Mount Zoomer."
-Clayton Purdum

"Restraint" - yet this album does not have any less impact on this listener. That is all. That is all?

Fire in the Hole!
Fire in the Hole!
Fire in the Hole!

-johnson!