Plants & Animals CD 'Parc Avenue'
Canadian Indie Band Releases Debut Album from Secret City Records
A review of the stellar debut album from Canadian band Plants and Animals, which hit stores March 25. Quirky, with detailed instrumentation, it will steal your heart.
Over the years, Canada has shared many wonderful things with the world: butter substitutes, electric wheelchairs, even Pictionary. Now, the Northern Neighbor has churned out yet another noteworthy Indie band: Plants and Animals. This smooth-crooning, folk-infested, Montreal-based rock group released their debut album, Parc Avenue, on March 25.
Full of breathy vocals and mesmerizing acoustic harmonies, this is yet another musical act that will put Quebec on the map. With Warren Spicer leading with vocals, Matthew Basque ribbing it out on bass, and Nicolas Basque mastering drums, this band is climbing its way to the top at a simply breath-taking rate.
Overview
For a debut release, Parc Avenue is exceptionally well done. There is enough diversity within the tracks to hold a listener’s interest, yet it is not excessive. Plants and Animals has a distinct yet unclassifiable sound—sure signs of raw talent. After the first listen or two, one might be tempted to shrug it off as just another tree-hugging, love-spouting, hippie group who is perpetually lit amidst the swirls of pungent incense. But give it another spin.
This three-man band uses guitar riffs straight from the 70s, dramatic bursts of severe piano, brassy collisions of cymbals and the occasional angsty violin to give a rugged yet quaint, almost gypsy-like feel. In fact, the whole album sounds as if it was totally handmade—almost like a basement recording done in the wee hours of a Saturday morning. For a lot of groups, this would not work very well—it would come across as cheap and unprofessional—but for Plants and Animals, it is totally and irrefutably natural.
Stellar Tracks
Really, it is difficult to pinpoint what the highlights of this album are. Although Good Friend pushes the envelope length-wise, it is worth every moment of the 6:05 song. After hearing “I wanna dance, I wanna dance, I wanna dance” over and over, combined with a jaunty bass and metallic rifts, it is enough to make a statue want to get up and cut a rug.
However, Faerie Dance and Guru go a little over board at 7:06 and 6:52, respectively—it begins to get tedious, despite the lilting piano and trance-like pulse, accompanied by Warren Spicer’s grizzled and reedy timbre. Although it might share the name of that infamous pop song, Bye Bye Bye is found to be much more engaging, despite the initial resemblance to just about any Coldplay song. After the intro, it begins to feel like a feel-good anthem to the recently crushed, with the uplifting voices of a church choir resounding in background paired with that famous raging piano and tempestuous harp.
In a completely different direction, New Kind of Love steals your heart like only an Irish ballad can, with a more subdued harp and light acoustic strumming, calling to mind the work of The Frames and Glen Hansard. Diversity is the key to success on this album, making it almost like Disney movies—a little bit of something for everyone.
Perhaps the best part about this whole package is that Plants and Animals do not seem to regard their music heavily, a grave mistake that many nubile groups stumble in to. It is precisely that air of indifferent amusement that lends Parc Avenue its charm. They are, in a sense, “keeping it real”—amidst the furry woodland creatures and the great country of Canada.
Plants and Animals Official Site
