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At Mount Zoomer | 
 enlarge | Artist: Wolf Parade
Label: Sub Pop
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
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Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 2925
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 70720
UPC: 098787072020
EAN: 0098787072020
ASIN: B0017U09N0
Release Date: June 17, 2008
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| Tracks:
| • | Soldier's Grin | | • | Call It a Ritual | | • | Language City | | • | Bang Your Drum | | • | California Dreamer | | • | The Grey Estates | | • | Fine Young Cannibals | | • | An Animal In Your Care | | • | Kissing the Beehive |
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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 Eglise 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer September 5, 2008
At Mount Zoomer (2008, Sub Pop) Wolf Parade's second studio album. ****
Certainly Arcade Fire's church studio didn't work the wonders for Wolf Parade's sophomore album as it did for them, but that doesn't mean the duo don't know how to make good music. At Mount Zoomer is strangely dense; in a way, it avoids the overly-layered approach that come to plague indie rock and alternative rock bands that want to veer further away than what is considered the all-too-obvious quirkiness. At the same time, they don't come off as too bouncy or weird. It's a delicate balance of a wide array of influences, but in the end, Wolf Parade are easily a staple band of the indie rock community. "Language City" has a whirlwind of synths, marking its independence from a run-of-the-mill studio single. "California Dreamer" sounds like a lost Doors take, featuring heavy electric keyboards and brooding vocals, mixing in some very progressive sounds. One waits to hear Morrison chime in on the chorus, "I thought I might have heard you on the radio/But the radio waves were like snow." The only snag may be "The Grey Estates," which sounds all too much like an Arcade Fire song. And while that in itself may not be bad, the idea that Arcade Fire could have done it so much better makes you wince. "Fine Young Cannibals" features a very orderly procession, with sparse bass, keyboards, and guitar. It sometimes meanders, but never does it stray too far, and Boeckner and Krug's vocals always bring it back. The album finishes with "An Animal In Your Care," a Simon and Garfunkel would-be complete with "La-la-lies" just like "The Boxer." At the end of the day, artists will be forced to look at At Mount Zoomer as a new twist with the same ingredients, because while there is no message or theme like there was on Neon Bible, the music itself is far more complex than it appears, revealing more intricacies with each listen. A very decent sophomore effort. (Soldier's Grin, Fine Young Cannibals)
Almost as good as their previous album August 23, 2008
Wolf Parade's second effort, At Mount Zoomer, is a good record. This is how I feel about it--at the moment. Their first, Apologies to the Queen Mary, was one of my favorite records of the past few years. I have listened to it literally thousands of times, and usually daydream that it is actually my record, that I made. Sadly, it isn't. :-(
The new album is growing on me slowly. It lacks the bombast of the previous, but it's interesting nonetheless. "Soldier's Grin" and "Language City" are my immediate favorites, and are reminiscent of Apologies, with the more driving melodies and grand schemes, but from there the songs really form a different record. I'm having trouble putting my finger on whom they "sound like": lots of synthy keyboards and fragmented songs. To no avail, I'll just say that it's a good record with `80s nostalgia' that makes for a nice listen. It's sometimes poppy, other times a little droning. If you enjoyed the first record, you'll probably like this one--after a bit.
--David Levin
Read more music reviews at www.shortandsweetnyc.com
 An improvement August 19, 2008
This is indie pop with a hard edge and a progressive bent. I was only mildly interested in their first, Apologies to the Queen Mary and didn't even end up buying it, while I find this album probably one of the best this year. What changed? Evaluating their side projects, Plague Park kept me on edge from beginning to end, while Random Spirit Lover only had a couple songs that caught my attention. So undoubtedly, it's probably the case that this album is more influenced by Boeckner than Krug. If you saw Wolf Parade as Krug being "more equal" than Boeckner (kind of like how many view Jack White and Brendan Benson's relations in the Raconteurs), chances are you will find this album lacking. If you liked Plague Park more than ATTQM, chances are you will find this an improvement.
This is not to say Krug's songs on here are not highlights. The double whammy of the first two songs, "Soldier's Grin", and "Call It A Ritual" really got me to pay attention here. On second thought, it may not be Krug himself, but simply the further integration of Boeckner's guitar skill into Wolf Parade's music, adding further instrument diversity. Another thing that made it for me is the increased diversity in song structures; you've got your typical three minute pop songs that defined much of their first album, and then there's prog-indie epics like "Fine Young Cannibals" and "Kissing the Beehive".
Overall, this album expands the band's sound while continuing to maintain the strengths of their first.
love at third listen August 4, 2008
Look, this is a different album than Apologies to the Queen Mary...one of my favorite albums ever. I can now admit that I was a little disappointed at first, after eagerly anticipating this release. Maybe I just wanted more of the same. I read that the band threw out some potential songs for just that reason. Now I appreciate this album like a second child- comparisons are a little unfair and I don't love it any less!
Standout tracks: Soldier's Grin, Grey Estates, Fine Young Cannibals!!
 Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer 6/10 August 2, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Wolf Parade's combustible, frantic first album, Apologies To The Queen Mary, was one of the most creative and undeniably fresh debuts by an indie rock band in 2005 or since, and their members' haven't been lacking for any new ideas; vocalists/guitarists Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug have been involved in countless side projects, with Wolf Parade only the most well known. It would be quite a task to match up to the unique indie-rock of Apologies, and Wolf Parade doesn't try. Instead, they set back the metronomes, tone down the yelps, and take to At Mount Zoomer like a wizened painter slowly fine-tuning his latest piece to work out every last kink.
The results are, predictably, mixed. Much of Apologies charm came from its "screw-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead" mentality and the way Wolf Parade's grab-bag of rock styles and influences combined to create a whole that always seemed like it was about to fall apart but somehow managed to stay strong to the end. At Mount Zoomer is slower and more calculated; Wolf Parade knows what they want to do, and, for the most part, they do it. "Soldier's Grin" is vintage Wolf Parade, rolling drums, hypnotic keyboards, and Boeckner and Krug's peculiar vocals framing their characteristically dense lyrics.
"Call It A Ritual" is even more tightly focused, built around a foreboding piano line and squalling guitar, but the song never really develops beyond its origins. The following "Language City" is the best song on the record, a tune about the pointlessness of talking just to talk that has a better beat than anything else on the album and a cathartic synth-based ending.
The songs tend to switch between shorter 3-minute pop experiments and 6-minute-plus musical expeditions. At Mount Zoomer thus has only nine tracks, but due to the often-bloated track lengths, Boeckner and Krug's idea well tends to run dry along the second half of the album. "Fine Young Cannibals" loses steam early and turns into an instrumental that is interesting only the first time one listens to it. Closer "Kissing The Beehive" is about as prog as Wolf Parade could ever reasonably be expected to go, and consists of about five minutes worth of excellent melodies and ideas and another six minutes of so-so noodling and half-brained ventures. It's a conscious attempt to sound epic, one that they can do just as easily with half the space.
Overall, the tracks on At Mount Zoomer tend to stand up individually on close inspection, but when the album is taken as a whole, its parts seem a little less distinctive. No song here grabs you immediately like Apologies opener "You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son" or the heartfelt honesty and catchiness of "Dear Sons And Daughters of Holy Ghosts." Apologies succeeded in never staying in the same place for too long; At Mount Zoomer succeeds in once again sounding unique, and Wolf Parade have once again defined a sound that is unequivocally theirs, but as a whole the songs tend to sound too similar too one another over the long haul to match up to Apologies' breakneck pace and innovative rapid-fire changes.
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