Handsome Furs — Plague Park

You get the feeling that Wolf Parade are one of those bands who aren't quite big enough to hold the sum of their parts. In Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner you have two of the best songwriters in Canada, so it's unsurprising they've both been asserting their individual prowess with side projects. Krug had a banner 2006 with Sunset Rubdown, and now Boeckner hopes for the same fortunes with Handsome Furs, who also feature his fiancee, Alexei Perry, on keys. If you prefer Boeckner's coarse drawl to Krug's high-pitched wail, you're going to love Plague Park. The nine-track album has a similar, spare aesthetic to Sunset Rubdown's Shut Up I Am Dreaming, but the songs feel more carefully crafted. They're dripping in ultra-intense atmospheric dread, and laced with the kind of freewheeling desperation that has become Boeckner's trademark. Wolf Parade members are producing such great music outside the band that it's almost a shame to see them go back to it. Almost. 

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