Handsome Furs - PlaguePark

Tue 26th Jun, 2007 in Music Reviews

We encounter music, like most things in life, inhibited by our own preconceived notions. This is generally with good reason, yet all too often opinion, qualified or otherwise, just gets in the way. If you were to approach Plague Park, the debut album by Handsome Furs, expecting something very similar to Wolf Parade, you certainly wouldn’t be far off – but that’s also missing the point.

That Dan Boeckner happens to be a member of both acts makes this association inevitable. But Boeckner, here joined by his fiancee Alexei Perry, lives up to expectations whilst at the same time transcending them. Handsome Furs are not so much a shadow as a pale ghost of Wolf Parade, and the nine songs of Plague Park are intelligently crafted and hauntingly executed.

Unlike the group’s press shots this is not particularly fashionable. It is awkward, cumbersome, pained and a little lost. Boeckner and Perry capture the sense of alienation inherent in modern living, despite and in spite of technological advancements. Plague Park carries a large, ambitious statement whittled down to a small-scale revolt. Thankfully it has big-time rewards.

Third track ‘Handsome Furs Hate This City’ acts almost as a blurb for the album. As Boeckner throatily howls – part-anthemically, part-sadly-resigned – “we hate this city / filled its drone”, the common threads that make up Plague Park are tied together. The album, indeed, has a droning, insistent quality about it; minimalist down to the repetitive drum machine. It also conveys strong messages of disdain.

The music is modest and stripped back (yet undeniably noisy), and unsurprisingly sounds a lot like a lo-fi Wolf Parade. Boeckner is widely pinned as the “less-weird” of that band’s two songwriters but here he makes a belated swipe for Spencer Krug’s exalted status. Handsome Furs are not weird as such, just a little obscure. Boeckner and Perry, who both make a living as writers, imbue their songs with wordy melancholy, whilst musically it is what isn’t said that has the most effect. Production is alternately sparse and dense, acting to emphasise the underlying feeling of isolation.

Opener ‘What We Had’ is a stark and jarring welcome to Handsome Furs. Boeckner’s anguished vocals are the perfect outlet for the lonely sentiment expressed: “And what we had don’t mean a thing / What we had is already gone”. Atop of programmed beats and distorted guitars, the words writhe with frustration. Disillusion with the familiar pops up throughout Plague Park, most notably on ‘Sing! Captain’ where Boeckner remarks “We hate this place here” before adding abjectly that “It’s our home”.

The album is ultimately one of disenchentmant. Handsome Furs relate feeling of isolation without offering any solution, perhaps for fear that any change will just make matters worse. It is one that succeeds in the face of musical and societal constraints; refining a limited palette and resisting conventional forms of expression for what are, ultimately, conventional emotions.