Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

Isaac Brock’s protégé needn’t be modest about this remarkable debut

Produced by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock, Wolf Parade’s debut LP sounds suspiciously similar to Brock’s own before-the-boards work: twitchy rhythms, half-hollered vocals, echoing pauses and squeaky, discordant guitar. Still, while Wolf Parade may be dark and spastic, its updates on indie formula—the band has connections to a mess of other Canadian guitar slingers, including The Arcade Fire, Destroyer and Frog Eyes—are undeniably impressive. “Shine A Light” (which opens the band’s self-titled EP, released earlier this summer) boasts piles of keyboard, thumping dance drums and a fist-pumping, vaguely Springsteen-like chorus of “I don’t sleep, I don’t sleep”—play it loud enough and you’ll get your whole building out of bed and into the street, hair-swinging and hip-twisting, grins all around.

(To read Paste's Band of the Week profile of Wolf Parade click here)