Handsome Furs

Plague Park (Sub Pop)

By Matt Siblo
Published: May 25th, 2007 | 12:01pm

Around three years ago, the independent music world discovered that if someone lived in Montreal, chances are they were in a band. This statement was recently amended to merely visiting Canada automatically qualifying any man woman or child to form a band that features a member of Wolf Parade, the Arcade Fire, or Broken Social Scene. Enter Handsome Furs, the latest male-female duo comprised of vocalist Dan Boeckner from — you guessed it! — Wolf Parade and his soon-to-be-bride Alexei Perry.

Billed as a “stripped down” project, Plague Park has a very small, insular vibe, which according to their press release is no accident. Its hooks are fleeting and almost never immediate. Even its most memorable tracks sound as if they are inextricable from the context of the album. Put another way, it embodies what Jeff Daniels’ arrogant father figure from The Squid and the Whale would describe as one of Canada’s “minor work.”

Yet to dismiss Plague Park because it lacks the grandiose statements of Boeckner’s day job would be somehow missing the point — even if the pieces don’t quite comparatively stack up. A more accurate point of reference could be Sunset Rubdown, fellow bandmate Spencer Krug’s sprawling and moody counterpoint. While Krug is undoubtedly the superior vocalist of the two, Plague Park has far more glitchy surprises tucked away than last year’s much ballyhooed Shut Up, I Am Dreaming. Taking its cues from notoriously gloomy acts like New Order and Jesus and Mary Chain (both channeled on the homage “Dead + Rural”) and Echo and the Bunnymen, Handsome Furs have created a dense album full of electronic pop whose temperamental charm lies in its starkness.