Monday 26 April 2010



QBiM SPiNS: Plants and Animals La La Land

I’m going to start off straight up with you:  I wanted to love Plants and Animals‘ second album, La La Land.  Their debut, Parc Avenue wasn’t my favourite album of 2008, but it drew lots of raves from all over, so I was willing to concede that there was definitely something there worth listening to.  I’d be lying if I said I return to that album often, but I have been known to go back and re-assess/evaluate it from time to time, in hopes that maybe I’ll hear what others have heard.  So, with the impending release of the follow-up, I vowed to listen with fresh ears and an open mind.  Alas, La La Land isn’t going to be the disc to convert me to a diehard fan of the Montreal trio.

It all starts promising enough with early single “Tom Cruz”, a song who’s groovy rhythm will get your toes tapping and head bobbing.  On it’s own, “Tom Cruz” is an excellent song, but once you get deeper into the disc, you realize that it may have been intentionally placed as the opening track in order to lure you in to liking (or at best tolerating) that which follows.  There’s enough interesting experimentation (the horns on “American Idol” help to elevate the song from just being a cheeky-titled filler track) but ultimately, La La Land fails to get any deeper than it’s fuzzy guitar surface will permit.

Maybe it’s the sophomore slump rearing its ugly head once more, but for all the promise and expectations piled on the band in the wake of their debut, Plants and Animals haven’t raised the bar, or their game.  “Future From the 80s” is probably one of the stand-out moments for me, a song that’s more spiritually in the vein of Parc Avenue.  The amps are turned down, the band is mellowed out, and what results is a delicately beautiful arrangement that sounds more earnest and honest than the bombast of “The Mama Papa” and the directionless wanderings of “Kon Tiki”.

Like Los Angeles itself, La La Land comes off as a lot of glitz and glam (and sometimes gluttony) amounting to a hollow sense of disappointment when you realize there really isn’t anything behind its façade (and my what an ugly façade the record’s sleeve is!).  There’s definitely some golden moments here, but you’ll have to dig to find it buried amongst the grime.

MP3: Plants and Animals “Tom Cruz”
Myspace: Plants and Animals





by J. Di Gioia | Comments Off

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