At Mount Zoomer - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Their second album for Sub Pop (following 2005's "Apologies To The Queen Mary") might just be this generation's "Marquee Moon" or an indie rock "Chinese Democracy" released thirty years early. Better though, to think of it as the sound of a band edging forward into a wispy darkness, one hand reaching out, the other firmly clutching the past.

Album Description
At Mount Zoomer, the second full length LP from the Canadian indie rock band Wolf Parade, an indie rock band from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, now based in Montreal, Quebec. The album is named after drummer Arlen Thompson's sound studio, Mount Zoomer, which apparently is "a B.C. euphemism for magic mushrooms and a nod to Montreal band, A Silver Mount Zion." Half of the album was recorded at Arcade Fire's Petite glise in Farnham, Quebec - an old church that was converted to a recording studio for the production of Neon Bible. After touring the east coast in late 2007, Wolf Parade recorded the rest of the album at MIXart Studios in Montreal, Canada.

Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Look Deeper June 17, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

When I first heard At Mount Zoomer, I was a little disappointed. It didn't seem to have the instant POP of Wolf Parade's first album, Apologies To The Queen Mary. That album broke onto the scene with gritty, electronically tinged rock songs that contained enough pop sensibility to appease any ear. At Mount Zoomer sounded like they were trying to repeat that effort, but with less success.

And then I listened again. And again. And again.

It became apparent that the album is more complicated than that.

Language City is gem. It opens with an excellent guitar riff and then enters the drums, the piano, and once a furious rhythm is established familiar synth buzzes through the air. They then break it down into a transcendent, hope-filled finish echoing, "We are not at home."

Exactly, the band is somewhere else now. Wolf Parade seems more concerned with the timing and progression of their songs.

"California Dreamer" starts strange with hopping bass and synth like a hypnopompic hallucination. The song then jumps into a psychedelic jam and finally ends leaving little of that initial strangeness resolved.

This oddity is followed by the cheery "The Grey Estates" wiping away the cobwebs of "California Dreamer."

"Fine Young Cannibals" follows with brooding guitar parts. Again the flow established in the previous song is interrupted. The song evolves into another dreamlike jam and the result is superb.

I could go on but I think I made my point. There is a surreal character in the album created by the shifting moods. Wolf Parade seamlessly moves between otherworldly jams and hallucitory peaks and valleys. The result epic in scope, though not as immediately accessible as Apologies. However, Zoomer is a much more interesting listen. Fans of Apologies who give the album a close and scrutinizing listen will discover a new world here. And it's a fun and mesmerizing place.

I can't finish this review without noting that album ends fantastically with Kissing the Beehive Pt 1 and 2.

5 out of 5 stars

Amazing June 22, 2008
3 out of 12 found this review helpful

This may not be a helpful review but this is in ways is better than Apologies.

2 out of 5 stars

Way underwhelming June 25, 2008
3 out of 7 found this review helpful

i thought this would grow on me eventually (the sound is much different from apologies), but this fails. really fails. the lyrics are shallow, and the music just really isn't that great. i gave this a completely fair amount of time and i'm not sure how those who like apologies could believe this compares favorably in any way. i actually liked it more the first few times through than i ended up liking it later. the lyrics are just horrible...i gave it two stars because "call it a ritual" is reasonably good, but i hope to be able to get the rest of the short album out of my memory very soon.

5 out of 5 stars

Nearly as good as Apologies July 3, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

How surprising to read the sort of indifferent reviews here. I would have loved them to make "More Apologies to the Queen Mary", too, but "At Mount Zoomer" is a terrific record. True, these aren't songs that are instantly catchy, though Wolf Parade is never going to get more catchy than "The Grey Estates", which almost sounds like early-80's Depeche Mode.

I'd say everything other than the dragging "Fine Young Cannibals" are great songs. They really do grow on you, and what I'm most impressed with is the level of musicianship here. Things that seem sloppy at first turn out to be subtle and clever. Boekner's songs have gotten much more carefully structured. "Soldier's Grin" in particular does a lot with a very little; when the opening hook returns at the end, it just kills me it's so cool. And Krug's melodies and rythyms are much more sophisticated here than before. The much more experimental flavor of his Sunset Rubdown solo work seems to have given him some new ideas. Yes, there are moments that sound a little like progressive rock, and "Califonia Dreamers" reminds me a lot like the Doors' "Riders on the Storm." But again, these guys have developed into really strong songwriters, and the songs here are worth digging into.

5 out of 5 stars

Dimiss the premature reviews July 22, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

If Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs had a child, it would be At Mt. Zoomer. This is Krug and Boeckner's fully realized musical vision and it's literally blowing my mind.

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