March 22, 2006

Review: The Lovely Feathers | Hind Hind Legs

The Lovely Feathers -- Hind Hind LegsYou can already bestow the trophy for 2006's best shout-out to Cracow, Poland to Montreal-based indie pop weirdos The Lovely Feathers. Riding buzz from an acclaimed slate of performances last fall opening for Metric, the two-year-old quintet is set to release a roundly excellent sophomore set Hind Hind Legs next month. It's already a clicky clicky Now Sound Fave -- see righthand column. Casual listeners may have trouble distinguishing the work of The Lovely Feathers and scene contemporaries and labelmates Islands, but since the Lovelies honestly have the goods, this isn't a bad thing. The Lovely Feathers perhaps rock a little harder, heading into hollery Wolf Parade territory now and then. And while the band rivals Islands in terms of quirk, The Lovely Feathers craft more anthemic tunes. The band's music embraces classic elements of New Wave and New Romantic ("In The Valley") while straddling additional unlikely and non-existent genres including power twee ("I Really Like You"). The xylophone and la-la-las of "Frantic" are sweetly irresistable, and make the track one of the best jams on the record. Hind Hind Legs streets April 18 on new label Equator Music, two weeks on the heels of Equator's issuance of Islands joint Return To The Sea. Equator is hosting a .m4a of the track "In The Valley," which we're linking to below along with the tune "Pope John Paul," which we cross-posted over at Two And 1/2 Pounds Of Bacon.

The Lovely Feathers -- "In The Valley"
[right click and save as]
The Lovely Feathers -- "Pope John Paul"
[MP3 -- right click and save as]

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