CD Reviews

The Luyas | Too Beautiful To Work

Dead Oceans (2011)

By REYAN ALI | February 23, 2011

1.5 Stars

The tone and feel of this release suggests the Luyas are at a big party where they don't really know anyone. The indie-pop four-piece from Montreal are well dressed and clinging to a couch in the corner. They fidget a bit, making polite, quiet conversation with one another, trying to figure out how to meet someone new. A stranger walks up to chat. The Luyas have interesting anecdotes and ideas to discuss, but instead, they keep to themselves, breaking into a few near-smiles at most. Once that conversation ends, they slip out the back. The remaining partygoers have trouble remembering anything particular about them, but, hey, they seemed like nice people, and attractive as well. That's how Too Beautiful To Work works, idly floating by and perpetually hesitating to make any kind of statement. ("Cold Canada" is one of the few sonic ruptures.) The issues begin with the lone voice: Jessie Stein's childlike croon is too cutesy and innocuous to provide any gravitas. The Luyas do supply some exquisite instrumental ingredients - a French horn sent through pedals, an obscure zither-like contraption called the Moodswinger, and various electronic effects - but they have a tough time making anything memorable out of them. Timidity eventually renders their work tedious.

Young Galaxy | Shapeshifting
The synthesizer called and Young Galaxy answered. On their third studio full-length, the Canadian indie-pop trio have gone all-out digital, laying down their guitars as sacrificial lambs and bowing to the altar of '80s electro-pop legends like Eurythmics and Depeche Mode.
Suuns | Zeroes QC
Secretly Canadian (2010)
Dengue Fever add eccentricity to psych pop
For all the kitsch and B-movie flair of Dengue Fever, there are still a few aspects of their obsession with Cambodian pop that they haven't put on record.
The Dears | Degeneration Street
This fifth and latest album from the Dears suggests that these Montreal natives need to clear out some Britpop cobwebs.
PJ Harvey | Let England Shake
Polly Jean Harvey's newest manages to be a song cycle about the soldier's perspective on armed combat without being a typical anti-war diatribe — and is all the better for it.
Cut Copy | Zonoscope
The most difficult thing about releasing a near-perfect album has to be the follow-up. People flipped when Cut Copy dropped 2008's In Ghost Colours , which saw the Aussie dance trio ramping up the formula of their debut LP with unrelenting momentum, strobe-light synths, and a shitload of robot voices.
Thin Lizzy | Jailbreak
For the sheer sake of keeping an underrated name out there, Thin Lizzy, and more specifically Jailbreak , fully deserve the deluxe-edition treatment.
Darkest Hour | The Human Romance
My earliest exposure to Darkest Hour came via “Sound the Surrender,” off 2005’s Undoing Ruin. It was an arresting introduction: dystopian metalcore/sorta death metal paired with an unexpectedly effective piano hook.
Review: A. C. Newman, Get Guilty
As leader of the New Pornographers, Carl Newman has lorded it over an indie-pop dynamo through four well-received albums.
Tiga | Ciao!
This Montreal-based electro-house dude made his name with slyly straight-faced covers of Nelly's "Hot in Herre" and Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night," and on his second studio disc, he doesn't appear hugely concerned that his original material should sound all that original.
Mandolin Fest
At SPACE Gallery, March 27
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Topics: CD Reviews , Montreal, New Music, indie-pop, More

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