Come Together
ROCK
Anyway Gang
Sloan were Canadian legends throughout their ’90s heyday. Sam Roberts reigned supreme over mid-2000s airwaves. But it’s the glossy, gleeful sheen of younger stars Tokyo Police Club and Hollerado that characterize much of the tone of Anyway Gang, the eponymous debut of a supergroup featuring members of all four of those well-established Canuck acts. Throughout most of these brisk and blissful nine tracks, Tokyo Police Club and Hollerado frontmen Dave Monks and Menno Versteeg, respectively, offer peppy sing-alongs aplenty and hooks gargantuan enough to clog any arena. Take “Everybody Cries,” which features earnestly shrill singing and thunderclap percussion. Its refrain about relatable weeping would be a bland platitude, if not for the sincerity in the vocal delivery. “Eyes of Green” is punchy and poppy, even though its toned-down tempo renders it practically a ballad alongside most of these other speedy tracks.
Relative elders Roberts and Sloan’s Chris Murphy are, of course, no strangers to radio-ready hooks. But their comparatively stripped-back pedigree makes for a jarring juxtaposition on production more typically asso
“Faesulae” — describe fictional lands in a foreignseeming universe, they’re grounded by striking evocations of distinct landscapes and dreamily familiar logic. Meikle’s attuned ear allows his compositions and orchestrations to describe and evoke not only emotional moods, but also physical environs with hazy accuracy. On the nine-minute “Icovellavna,” doomy horns create a pensive mood, which is partially undone by the subsequent hopping flutes and rapid guitars. One senses furtive, mysterious beauty, at once alluring and mercurial. Meikle’s compositions are glitchy, dreamy, and varied, moving from breakdowns so playful they’re almost kitschy, back into contemplative, militantly earnest verses. Because the edges of his songs are cloudy, mysterious even, these sorts of shifts — sometimes tonal, sometimes textural, sometimes sonic — don’t seem abrupt. Instead, they seem to fittingly and explicitly reveal elements that were always implied, like Meikle is panning the camera from the beautiful estuary to the foreboding forest that surrounds it.
The Isle of Ailynn is an engrossing, ethereal land, both breathtaking and turbulent, fully rendered and fully felt thanks to Meikle’s voice. His pleading, afciated with young bucks Monks and Versteeg. Regardless, the veteran rockers have a blast with that slickly trendy backdrop, bellowing and soloing along with youthful abandon. The Anyway Gang are a disparate crew, but that just makes for a uniquely fun combination. (Royal Mountain)
Menno, what’s it like to be in a band with esteemed vets like Sam and Chris?
Do I have to respond accordingly? I can hear everything you’re saying Menno, so be careful.
We should get us all on the phone and do this Royal Rumble style! Usually, if you put a bunch of lead singers in a room, it’s a recipe for disaster, but it’s actually been really fun for us to share and learn how to play with others. Seriously though, Chris is definitely one of the people that truly inspired me. And not just musically, but also that any idiot in a band can start a record label, and that Royal Mountain Records can be an artist-run label.
And Menno has continued the rock tradition of taking something that could be profitable, and turning it into a huge service project. fecting falsetto holds humanity and hope, clarifying that while Ailynn is fictional, its author certainly isn’t. Glitchy and synth-y, wistful and wise, engrossing and ethical, familiar and foreign, The Isle of Ailynn deserves many listens — both to savour its sounds, and ponder its truths. (Paper Bag)
ELECTRONIC / HIP- HOP
rubber really hits the Mad Max road, insomuch as it provides the hardhitting hip-hop verses that give literal voice to the themes of technological surveillance, digital conformity (“C.O.N.F.O.R.M.”), generational violence and generally anything that tries to make sense of our overcomplicated age. The roster of guest collaborators is impressive, ranging from veterans Nas and De La Soul (“Rocket Fuel” being a punchy highlight) to up-andcoming MCs such as Loyle Carner. Run the Jewels also team up with Shadow again, while Pusha T, Ghostface Killah and Dave East round out some other memorable appearances.
Our Pathetic Age is a must-listen for longtime fans who’ve followed
Shadow’s brilliance since Endtroducing.…. Though his latest venture doesn’t necessarily look to provide any one solution, he isn’t closing the door — or mobile screen — on us just yet. Instead, he masterfully delivers a snapshot of a disjointed, vibrant and inherently flawed system as seen through one of electronic music’s longstanding visionaries. (Mass Appeal)