Wolf Parade have returned to sum up our feelings about the last 18 months. And they want to make us put on our red shoes and dance away the blues. ‘Cry Cry Cry’, is the first album from the Canadian band since they entered an indefinite hiatus in 2011, and they have never sounded better.
There’s a clear vein of political commentary running through many of the tracks here, notably The King Of Piss and Paper and Am I An Alien Here?, but the maudlin topics aren’t reflected in the band’s sound.
There is a constant driving energy that’s desperate to make your feet move. You’re Dreaming, for example, contrasts a synth-driven indie-pop melody with Dan Boeckner’s lyrics: “Every system in collapse / A billion screens they move so fast but that’s not life / You’re dreaming.”
On lead single Valley Boy, meanwhile, Spencer Krug frames political turmoil with the death of Leonard Cohen. “The radio's been playing all your songs / Talking about the way you slipped away up the stairs,” he sings. “Did you know that it was all gonna go wrong?”
It’s the death of David Bowie that looms largest, though. His musical influence seeps through on tracks like Weaponized, which ends with an epic space-glam instrumental. Am I An Alien Here? directly namechecks him and, maybe deliberately, the album’s opening track is called Lazarus Online, referencing Bowie’s final single.
Part of Wolf Parade’s charm has always been the contradictory interplay of writing styles between their two frontmen, often typified by their side-projects. The pair seem more in sync than ever here, though, effortlessly blending Boeckner’s glam-indie-pop and Krug’s futuristic art rock.
They regularly find common ground on this record, as opposed to embellishing their differences. Wolf Parade’s eccentricities are still on show - see Incantation’s vaudevillesque piano melody or the psychedelic outro on Baby Blue - but these tracks are some the band’s most accessible.
‘Cry Cry Cry’ manages to pay the deepest of respects to Cohen and Bowie, two idols who never shied away from controversy, by embodying just how important the arts can be in difficult political times. It turns Krug and Boeckner’s musical cohesion into a symbol of togetherness.
Wolf Parade Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sat November 18 2017 - BRISTOL Thekla
Mon November 20 2017 - DUBLIN Button Factory
Tue November 21 2017 - MANCHESTER Gorilla
Wed November 22 2017 - LONDON O2 Forum Kentish Town
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