I find it impossible to rate this because it feels so deeply personal to me.
The first half reminds me of being 13, driving with my parents from Toronto to Niagara Falls, the windows rolled down and the radio cutting in and out, from CHUM-FM to CJED-FM as we pass through the FM stations broadcast of cities along the way. Being 19 and on the Greyhound to New York or Montreal, equipped with just an off-brand 128MB MP3 player for a 12 hour bus ride (and definitely no smartphone).
The album evokes for me a nostalgia (even on the first listen) for a monotonous Canadian suburbia I was so desperate to escape years ago that feels boundless and hopeful in… More
This is some wild shit, but I love it so much. A double album, four years in the making. Perhaps their last one? Put up on YouTube without ads. Or purchasable/downloadable in .wav format (via a MegaUpload link!) if you go to fucking GeoCities of all places...
But it's full of brilliant, "off-kilter" (sorry) Brill Building-type pop that sounds like it's being played at the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks. Instant AOTY contender.
Standouts: "Kingdom Come", "Dreams of You", "Government Cheque", "If You Hear Me Crying".