The New Music

The Most Serene Republic have always been an overreaching, adventurous bunch. Back in 2005, when they released their debut album, Underwater Cinematographer, ears perked up over the type of effervescence and ability these kids from Milton, Ontario so effortlessly demonstrated. The band joined the Arts & Crafts community and gave the rather dry, predictable indie rock scene a much needed combination of rhythmic whiplash, melodic indulgence and impulsive showmanship.

While they always had the chops to throw down any number of eyebrow-raising arrangements, there was always a sense that TMSR weren’t quite meshing their ambitions together accordingly. Well, fast-forward four years, three other records (2006’s Phages EP, the following year’s Population album and companion remix EP, Digital Population), not to mention a rotation in the line-up, and the septet have finally delivered on their promise with a statement I didn’t see coming.

Recorded with Broken Social Scene’s in-house producer Dave Newfeld, the band’s third full-length, …And the Ever Expanding Universe, begins with a grand proclamation in “Bubble Reputaton,” an urgent opus filled with dizzying twists and turns. From there both “Phi” and “Four Humours” borrow some ancestral inspiration from forefathers Broken Social Scene with heavy distortion and tight Teutonic drumming.

But it’s the album’s central couplet of “All of One is the Other” and “Patternicity” that really introduces the listener to this TMSR’s unlimited ability. The former is a sweeping comedown accentuated by undulating piano keys and languid vocals. The latter is arguably the finest moment of their six-year career: an instrumental juggernaut that eschews the band’s more pop tendencies for classical brilliance and a string-led, dramatic arc that sounds as though it was designed for a BBC natural history series.

Don’t let their aspirations fool you, …And the Ever Expanding Universe is more of a loose, kaleidoscopic pop album than it is a young band indulging in some overexcited prog rock gesturing.

Listen to it Here

Artist: The Most Serene Republic
Album: …And The Ever Expanding Universe
Release Date: July 14, 2009
Label: Arts & Crafts
Genre: Indie Pop/Rock
Author: Cam Lindsay

Track Listing:

1. Bubble Reputation
2. Heavens To Purgatory
3. Vessels of a Donor Look
4. Phi
5. The Old Forever New Things
6. All Of One Is The Other
7. Patternicity
8. Four Humours
9. Catharsis Boo
10. Don’t Hold Back, Feel A Little Longer
11. No One Lieks a Nihilist

Posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 10:33 am by Klye and is filed under Reviews, The New Music.

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