PLANTS & ANIMALS – That Montreal Summer Feel…

The Montreal trio has gained a lot of experience since their fantastic debut, “Parc Avenue”, back in 2008. On top of the 4 albums and 2 EP they made together, each member of Plants & Animals became an influent actor in the indie rock music scene. Guitarist and singer Warren Spicer went on to produce Katie Moore’s album and played with Coral Egan, as bassist and singer Nicolas Basque played with everybody on the Quebec French music scene, from Philemon Cimon to Alex Nevsky and jazz influenced Matthew Woodley kept the beat going. At one point, you could have wondered if they had time to write and record new material together!

Here we are in the first beautiful days of summer in Montreal and we have a new Plants & Animals record to listen to. Great timing as the song À l’orée du bois (off their first LP) is one of my personal favourite summer songs. The way it captures a lazy sunny day in Montreal is so perfect it could be used to attract tourists (and indie rock aficionados).

At first glance, it’s an album that is reminiscent of their first one, as there are nice pop hooks all over the place with carefully crafted vocal harmonies (No Worries Gonna Find Us) and very elaborate orchestration (We Were One). The soft psychedelic mood we had felt in the early days is still there. It also feels like Beck’s slow psyche-rock songs.

Rather than going up the heavier rock alley as they did on 2010’s “La La Land”, Plants & Animals dig into their 70s folk-rock influences to build strong songs like Stay, which highlights rhythm guitars. They go even deeper into the buzz as the album gradually deploys: All Of The Time sounds like a blend of Patrick Watson’s aerial singing with Syd Barrett’s acoustic guitar strumming. Spicer sings a bit like Thom Yorke on this track, in the “OK Computer” era. The next track, So Many Nights, is way cleaner, really close to the soft rock of the 70s. Think of 10CC or Seals and Crafts. It even smooths things up with the soft and sad Je voulais te dire (which is sung in English except for that single line in French).

Yes, this is a rich album with a lot of different music angles. It is easy to enjoy, as there are a lot of musical surprises, although the album. Epic 7 min songs can brutally switch from a sad moment to upbeat indie pop! Musicians with that level of skills can pull that off.

“Waltzed in from the Rumbling” is the fourth full-length album by the band and was released on April 29, 2016.

PLANTS & ANIMALS
Waltzed in from the Rumblings
(Secret City, 2016)

-Genre: sophisticated indie rock
-In the same field as The Besnard Lakes, Sloan, Beck, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Buy the album on the band’s page on Secret City
Follow the band via their Facebook page
Listen to videos on the label’s YouTube channel