Fast Times
Fast Romantics
Happiness + Euphoria
This is a Friday night pop record about mortality. And half-hearted robots, with a side of aliens. The two-part concept of the LP — each half dwells upon the title’s themes — didn’t strike me as the musicians might have intended, but that’s probably because I was too busy waiting for the band’s inevitable and finely crafted choruses to land. The buoyant nature of the Calgary-to-Toronto group's sound — keys that dive and drone, snares that snap in place, and bold, keening singing by (mostly) Matthew Angus, whose only curse is that he probably sounds like your five favourite male vocalists poured out of a Cuisinart — belie meditations on death, relationships that end cruelly, and the vagaries of a world that can produce Baby Metal and the Sphere while letting the planet move towards its last breath. There is more melody here than your average MGMNT and Golden Dogs — two bands that entered my head when trying to occasionally place the sound-- and the album rides along with cohesion in its candied shell before landing at “What’s in a Name,” the record’s most moving anthem, and “Mexico,” the weirdest song of the collection. This is an album that should win friends easily. It’s familiar in the way that you were once fond of an old neighbour. If mature Indie Rock is about wringing out good new melodies while asking where this life goes, I’m here for it.
Find the band on Bandcamp HERE