If music matters to you then Wolf Parade should matter to you as well. For they, in my opinion, represent what is good in music. What is exciting and stimulating. What is great. They climbed the mountain in 2005 and five years later they have managed to stay there. With "Expo 86", their third album, they have created stimuli for the senses, shocks to the heart and smiles to the face. It is music that is conversely simple and complicated. Simple in its intent, but complicated in structure and sound. The music is raw, yet complex and giving. This is an album that will make you dance with unshackled mayhem, but is also good enough to be a headphone masterpiece. I hoped for greatness. I received it.

Previously I delved into this album, so I won't go long with further appraisal. Suffice to say that in an age of glib pop and poor song construction it is refreshing to hear music that pounds on the head and the heart. That takes guitars, keyboards and drums and makes music that is fresh and invigorating. The band have stated that they worked long and hard on this record and the results have born fruit. They also recorded mostly everything direct to tape, trying to capture their famed live sound. This worked also as there is a directness and illumination on each and every track. This album feels like a band collaboration too. An Arlen drum fill, a Dante bass line, Dan's lead guitar or Spencer's keyboards. They are all there, meshing together in one organic celebration. But it's the moments that make Wolf Parade great. Those signature sparks that carry long inside your head and heart. No one does it better.

The frenetic drumming at the end of "Palm Road"
The driving midsection of "What Did My Lover Say?"
The way Dan sings "Sing 'em all night anyway" in "Little Golden Age"
The weeping guitar in "In The Direction of the Moon"
The maelstrom of guitar and drum (twice) in "Pobody's Nerfect"
The aching guitar breakdown in "Yulia"
The madcap surge of "Cave-O-Sapien".

It's all there. All for us. All for you.

MP3: What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)