The suburban Toronto kids in Tokyo Police Club also embrace an all-over-the-place aesthetic, but without the abrupt rhythms or maddening aftershocks. Its short A Lesson In Crime EP quickly won the group tour dates with Cold War Kids and a record deal with Conor Oberst's US indie label Saddle Creek. It's a little baffling at first, but the EP's guitar- and synth-pop pleasures prove less fleeting than expected. Also straight out of the Toronto 'burbs: The Most Serene Republic, a Broken Social Scene-like band of expansive alt-rock adventurers, who have progressed from the weirdly hooky 2005 LP Underwater Cinematographer to the more forceful, experimental Population, due out October 15th.
For those who prefer their rock with more backbeat and guitar bite, two veteran Ontario outfits are a must: the frenzied By Divine Right and the frighteningly controlled Constantines. The former has grown beyond its garage-rock origins to embrace R&B and gospel, pulling the most uplifting elements from different genres to create a happily soul-shaking experience. Constantines also want to set their listeners in motion, but their songs have apocalyptic undertones, urging people to dance their way through the end of days.
Constantines' "Working Full Time" video:
The essentials:
1. The Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
Where The Arcade Fire's first album, Funeral, dealt with loss and renewal on a personal level, Neon Bible goes global, offering songs of comfort in a time of trial. It's a booming, hooky rock record designed to make even the fans in the cheap seats feel welcomed into the circle.
2. Sloan, 4 Nights At The Palais Royale
It's hard to single out any one of Sloan's albums as its best work, but this 1998 double-live CD at least gives a fair representation of what a Sloan show is like, with the audience chanting along and the band trotting out monster hook after monster hook, smiling but not winking.
3. The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema
Twin Cinema doesn't punch and hook as incessantly as The New Pornographers' first two albums, Mass Romantic and Electric Version, but it's the band's boldest reach yet. Here, The New Pornographers dare to slow down and build epics. "The Bleeding Heart Show" shows off the band's full range of vocal powers, as the album's surge of empathy overcomes A.C. Newman's often-cryptic lyrics.
4. Broken Social Scene, You Forgot It In People
Broken Social Scene began to take shape (or a distinct lack of shape) on its second album, as it blossomed from a modest instrumental project to a wondrous collective mess, crediting about a dozen performers. The great feat here isn't the way the makeshift band incorporates countless glitches, voices, flutes, guitars, and keys into just under an hour; it's that the album feels friendly, and never too pretentious, throughout all its phases.
5. Constantines, Tournament Of Hearts
Combining pounding drums, tightly spiraling guitars, and Bryan Webb's choked vocals, Constantines build an unstoppable machine out of discarded pieces of rock 'n' roll's past. And while Webb rages against the dying of the light, his band brings the ominous rumble, proving once again that doom is a perennial, especially in Canada, where indie-rockers both light a candle and curse the darkness.
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