Incongruous as it may seem, there is something about Wolf Parade's third album that recalls David Lynch's filmic excursions into the surreal. With Expo 86, they take us beyond the white-picket fence of North American indie-rock and towards something captivatingly strange. What's more, it's a record that constantly shape-shifts, its overall sound as intangible and subject to flux as memory.
The multi-faceted nature of the record owes much to the fact that Wolf Parade boast not one, but two fine songwriters in Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug. This also, perhaps, explains the restless feel of the album and the disparate influences. To start, we get the arty, new-wave, clatter of 'Cloud Shadow On The Mountain', a song which suggests David Bryne fronting the early-Eighties B-52s. However, the chameleonic impulse soon kicks in, the thrusting rhythms and disconcerting lyric of 'Palm Road' evoking Arcade Fire. Later, those who enjoyed The Killers early days will thrill to the dynamic, synth-embellished flourishes of 'What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way)', while 'In The Direction Of The Moon' has something of the oddness and psych-rock pomposity of The Teardrop Explodes.
However, even the great code-breakers of Bletchley Park would take an age to fully decipher this record. Each play unfurls some new facet to relish, be it the Modest Mouse-esque wail of 'Two Men In New Tuxedos', the crunching guitars meets strident keys clamour of 'Ghost Pressure', or frazzled dream state of 'Yulia'. Yes, Expo 86 is one of those records that rewards the dutiful listener. Best take our advice, then, and get devoted.