I find it impossible to rate this because it feels so deeply personal to me.
The first half reminds me of being 13, driving with my parents from Toronto to Niagara Falls, the windows rolled down and the radio cutting in and out, from CHUM-FM to CJED-FM as we pass through the FM stations broadcast of cities along the way. Being 19 and on the Greyhound to New York or Montreal, equipped with just an off-brand 128MB MP3 player for a 12 hour bus ride (and definitely no smartphone).
The album evokes for me a nostalgia (even on the first listen) for a monotonous Canadian suburbia I was so desperate to escape years ago that feels boundless and hopeful in… More
This is some wild shit, but I love it so much. A double album, four years in the making. Perhaps their last one? Put up on YouTube without ads. Or purchasable/downloadable in .wav format (via a MegaUpload link!) if you go to fucking GeoCities of all places...
But it's full of brilliant, "off-kilter" (sorry) Brill Building-type pop that sounds like it's being played at the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks. Instant AOTY contender.
Standouts: "Kingdom Come", "Dreams of You", "Government Cheque", "If You Hear Me Crying".
Really charming. Not familiar with Cindy Lee but the album had sent really cute, sappy love songs that I can see myself returning to. The albums length makes it feel like it's the soundtrack to a lost early 2010's indie film, which may or may not be for everyone.
I listened to this waking up on my birthday and after a restless sleep. It was definitely an interesting album to wake up to but no complaints at all.
El día en que me lo escuché entero del tirón, quizás la quinta estrellita. Pero por contexto, por tipo de obra, por el entorno, por todo lo que significa, esto es un PALANTE claro.
vividly remember hearing 'public strain' by women in high school, forever altering my music taste. this is the only album for me that comes close to competing with kali malone's 'all life long' for aoty. just earworms front to back on this one. hope to see an lp pressing in the future.