For Those Who Stay

PS I Love You, For Those Who Stay: indie rock / indie pop / lo-fi*. Canadian duo. Formed in 2006. For Those Who Stay is their third LP release and first album recorded in a studio. To my ear, this is a big shift from Meet Me at the Muster Station (most popular album). For example, they occasionally have a third musician, have added complexity, long jams, a huge and dramatic sound on tracks like 1, 6, and 9, and are more heavily produced. They were once considered lo-fi. This is more like studio crafted lo-fi. The vocalist, Paul Saulnier, is somewhere between David Byrne and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. You can decide if you like it. The internet is lukewarm to it but more excited than me. RIYL: The Constantines, Japandroids, yuck, male bonding, odonis odonis. FCC clean.

1. (2:43) Indie pop rock. Big noise and synthy. Vocals are a mess, with a little david byrne and distortion.
2. (4:50) Wall of sound guitar with fuzz. Indie rock pop. Pretty cool until “Ooo lalala” then angsty high pitched vocals coupled with lead guitar. Pockets of cool with an ugly chorus.
3. (2:55) **Nice acoustic guitar intro. Reminds me of devendra banhart... Nice song. Picks up with bass drum and some percussion.
4. (2:52) Noisy intro. Heavy guitar, “I’m still on the radio”
5. (6:29) *Title track, synthy. A little psychedelic. Indie pop. Big jam half way through.
6. (4:23) Big chorus intro, dramatic drums and singing. Chorus is rough.
7. (3:30) Big sound, heavy guitar. Poppy drums. “Friends forever.”
8. (5:06) Big guitar intro with fuzz, a few seconds of feedback, then chills out at 2 minutes and vocals enter. Somewhat redeeming, but then “ooowooowhoa oh woo”
9. (5:53) *Upbeat guitar intro. Okay. Noisy. At 4:15 vocals start to sound like Arcade Fire with repetitive guitar and dramatic music in background.