Chad VanGaalen — Soft Airplane

Chad VanGaalen is a picky performer. He doesn't care much for his excellent Polaris-nominated sophomore effort, Skelliconnection, and the original upbeat version of Soft Airplane was scrapped in favour of this one. If VanGaalen's aim was to make a cohesive pop record, he's come pretty close to perfection. The first seven tracks are all outright winners, as are the last five (including the ominous instrumental closer, "Frozen Energon"). There's just one minor transgression that can't be ignored because it's right in the middle of the album. "TMNT Mask" is a decent song. In fact, it's one that gets better as it escalates. But the dance-pop track is also wildly out of place on this record, more so than any of the brief electronic pieces that dotted Skelliconnection's lengthy track list. Thankfully, the digital age makes it easy to omit. That aside, the rest of the songs are superb and should only enhance VanGaalen's growing reputation.