(Secret City)

www.secretcityrecords.com  

The sophomore release from the Montreal trio Plants and Animals may not feature anything as epic as their debut Parc Avenue's "Fairie Dance" suite, but the songs here are tougher, louder, and more guitar-centric. Recorded onto analog tape during late nights in Montreal and long Parisian days, with plenty of rum-and-cokes-fuel in both cities, the songs revel in their strong early ‘70s vibe. They land somewhere between art rock, glam and guitar rock, with the ghost of Syd Barrett haunting some. All of it, though, is filtered through a modern sensibility.

The pulsing opener "Tom Cruz" features Crazy Horse guitar-chug delivered at an Interpol pace, reverb pings and synth bells heralding the choruses. "Swinging Bells" and "American Idol" were originally one song, but pulled apart the former acts as an eerie, psychedelic-tinged opener for the latter, whose sax solo ratchets up the Roxy Music comparisons, while the six-minute "Undone Melody" opts for a slow, steady crescendo build over mood-shifting sections. "Kon Tiki" offers breezy So-Cal soul in a Topanga Canyon-twang pot-smoke haze, while "Game Shows" opens like early guitar-and-piano Gomez before slipping into a disheveled outro that recalls Hendrix's "Hey Joe." "The Mama Papa" chugs forward like Thin Lizzy with a catchy sing-along chorus and Lloyd-Verlaine/Television guitar lines, while "Fake It" skitters through shifting time sigs on guitar reverb without (unfortunately) ever really landing anywhere, and "Celebration" drifts pleasantly in a soul-guitar ether until it gathers enough heat to explode in a horn-fueled crescendo. "Future From the 80s" serves as a gentle coda to "Celebration" (originally intended as the album closer), and "Jeans Jeans Jeans" now ends things as a raucous and epic guitar-workout encore.

By the time the amps stop ringing, you feel you've travelled through a cohesive, front-to-back, old-fashioned album, one that you probably wouldn't be surprised to learn still got plenty of spins decades down the line.

Standout Tracks: "Swinging Bells" "Jeans Jeans Jeans" JOHN SCHACHT