Pitchfork loved it. I was skeptical — not too long ago it seemed like Montreal could do no musical wrong, so I downloaded Wolf Parade's last two EPs and was unimpressed.

But Apologies to the Queen Mary is good, and you should get it. Two things, though:

1. Who mixed the drums? You guys should probably fire him. Also, the guy who miked the drums. And the guy who sold you the kit. It sounds like somebody's pounding on an unusually flimsy cardboard box. And do you even own a bass drum? On some songs this works out fine, but on the uptempo numbers you could really use a driving rhythm section. Maybe I've just been prejudiced by all these recent dance rock albums; I donno. But the album frequently sounds anemic.


2. We need to set up some sort of background-check system for young men buying Modest Mouse albums, so that it can be determined prior to purchase that they're not planning to pursue careers as rock vocalists. Cause this shit has gotten out of hand: approximately every new front man in indie rock now apes either Isaac Brock or David Byrne. Oddly, with Wolf Parade it's not to conceal an inability to actually sing. But they still do it. It's not super-irritating, it's just a little more boring than it could be.