Composer: Handsome Furs
Conductor: Handsome Furs
Label: Sub Pop
Release Date: 2009-04-01
Rated: NONE
Genre: Recording
In Wolf Parade, Dan Boeckner makes blurry indie-rock that twists and turns in so many directions it’s often difficult to grasp. In Handsome Furs, which he co-fronts with wife Alexei Perry, he makes music that’s slightly more accessible — synth-guided tunes that still sway to the artsy side of the spectrum. On the Furs’ second album, Boeckner and Perry sing about the end of the world and self-doubt amid spare beats and handclaps punctuated by piercing guitar stabs. It’s all very splintered and cryptic, with Boeckner’s cracked, straining voice laid on top of bedroom electronics that either get stuck on repeat or fall apart altogether by song’s end. Face Control’s best cuts — the coolly robotic “Legal Tender,” “Talking Hotel Arbat Blues’” 21st-century rockabilly — don’t sound like they’re from a specific place or time. Which is Boeckner and Perry’s point: With the apocalypse right around the corner, who has time for nostalgia?
