Description
Label Review.
2020 album also available on Vinyl.
Our Overview.
Canadian indie rockers Wolf Parade - Dan Boeckner, (Handsome Furs) Spencer Krug (Frog Eyes) and Arlen Thompson - release ‘Thin Mind’, the group’s fifth album for Sub Pop. ‘Thin Mind’ has sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and dystopian narratives interwoven throughout. These themes emerged while working at Risque Disque, which Boeckner jokingly describes as a Dutchman’s failed utopia, a problematic structure with a post-apocalyptic vibe: the studio is housed in a stone barn hand-built by the Dutchman in the middle of the woods, using local materials and based on his memory of a building he loved growing up in the Netherlands
.‘Thin Mind’ finds the core members of Wolf Parade working as a trio, as they did on past albums ‘Apologies to the Queen Mary’ and ‘At Mount Zoomer’, with songwriting duties evenly split between singers Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug.
Every moment spent gazing at our screens is oversaturated with content, an ever-accelerated news cycle conditioning our ever-decreasing attention spans. The struggle to stay present, and to foresee a clear, sustainable future, feels very real. Wolf Parade address this phenomenon head-on with Thin Mind, the band’s 5th full-length and second to be produced by John Goodmanson (Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Unwound).
“Thin Mind refers to the way that being around too much tech has made our focus thin,” says keyboardist Spencer Krug. “It’s opening one more page, scrolling one more thing,” adds guitarist Dan Boeckner, “and the weird, sort-of hollow automaton feeling that you get from it.”
“This record is very personal, but at the same time, we’re all coming from the same place of a general sense of anxiety,” says drummer Arlen Thompson. “How do you deal with the constant barrage of having your opinions swayed by all these different actors when you don’t know who they are or what their purpose is? There is no normal anymore.”
'Thin Mind' marks a return to the original power trio of Dan, Spencer, and Arlen, following multi-instrumentalist Dante DeCaro’s amicable departure from the group in 2018, after the conclusion of their world tour supporting Cry Cry Cry.
The album includes ‘Forest Green’, ‘Julia, Take Your Man Home’ and ‘Against the Day’, which features a rare co-vocal performance from Boeckner and Krug.
The 10-track release was recorded by John Goodmanson at Risque Disque on Vancouver Island, BC, mixed by Goodmanson at Bogroll Studios in Seattle, WA and mastered by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering in Toronto, ON.
Vinyl format includes digital download card.
Tracklisting: Under Glass / Julia Take Your Man / Home / Forest Green / Out of Control / The Static Age / As Kind as You Can / Fall Into the Future / Wandering Son / Against the Day / Town Square