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Monday, April 17, 2006

CD Review - Hind Hind Legs

Here's my first "feature" on 49Music, a review of the new The Lovely Feathers album. Its also the first formal album review on the website, and I plan on doing more.


The Lovely Feathers
Hind Hind Legs
Release: April 18, 2006
49Music Rating: 39 (out of 49)


Montreal quintet The Lovely Feathers drop their major release debut LP, Hind Hind Legs, this week as the second album from the newly formed Equator Music label (the first being Islands' Return To The Sea). I was already familiar with half of the songs in the new album from appearances on their self-released My Best Friend Daniel and from the tour-exclusive EP I picked up when I saw them open for Metric back in November (where The Lovely Feathers totally stole the show). I also recognize a few of the more exciting new cuts from their frenetic live show, even all these months later. "In The Valley" and "Frantic" were favorites of mine from their set, and they translate fantastically to this studio recording. There are a few songs that are really enjoyable but seem a bit flat in the studio, like "Wrong Choice" and "The Only Appalachian Cornfield", though they are still great fun to listen to and bop along with, and I'd certainly love to hear them live again.

One aspect that amuses me, and I'm sure anyone else for whom this is TLF's third release, is that this is the third different recording of "Photocorners" we've been treated to, and its still fantastic! This version comes across more as a campfire jam with everyone singing along and riffing off of each other, though I'm not really sure who brings a rhodes organ to a campfire, and I do miss some of the shouted singing from My Best Friend Daniel's version. Still, this is a song perfectly suited for a singalong with fifty of your closest friends and strangers.

"Rod Stewart" is a tremendously fun pop rock song, with its driving guitars and fuming drums and a hooky chorus that this just silly enough to release the inhibitions of anyone listening ("If it's just my body you want, my body you want, then come on and tell me!"). The biggest surprise for me was "Breakfast Cake," one of the most exciting and engaging tracks on the album and one of the few that was completely new to me. With dueling guitars and a chorus with harmonious whelping and hushed affirmation, this song most perfectly encapsulates all of the energy and fun I remember from the band's live show.

A couple of lackluster tracks are distracting in between the many pop gems, and it suffers from not being as good as their live show. Otherwise, Hind Hind Legs would easily be one of the best Canadian pop records of the year.

5:23 PM
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