Quality Canadian bands have been almost ten-a-penny the last few years (penance, perhaps, for the Satanic double-whammy of Bryan Adams and Celine Dion), and Montreal’s Plants and Animals are yet another worthy addition to the crammed pantheon. Their intricate orchestration, catchy choruses and eclectic range of influences are a treat on record, garnering a much-deserved Polaris nomination and for the most part they deliver live too, albeit in a different way to what fans may expect.
The first thing that you notice is that the elaborate arrangements of the album have been stripped down to their barest bones- the strings of Arcade Fire’s Sarah Neufeld are gone, and all remains is guitar, bass and drums. Naturally, this results in a rawer sound than the album, with songs like “Good Friend” imbued with a jagged, intense quality not always apparent in their recorded incarnations. They’re also more vibrant than one would necessarily expect, having a certain edge at odds with the fey image cultivated by many of their Canuck peers. Nonetheless, one shouldn’t overstate the differences between Parc Avenue and the live show- they play it safe with the song structures, meaning that songs are perfectly recognisable even if the arrangements aren’t.
The band seemed particularly keen to try out plenty of new material, which for the most part showed promise and a degree of progression from Parc Avenue, although it wouldn’t be surprising if the final versions of these songs bore little similarity to those presented here. These tracks were well received by the audience, although the atmosphere really picked up for the better-known songs, especially “Fairie Dance” with its extended singalong coda. Still, there’s a few issues that stop them being quite as compelling as they could be. The vocals have a tendency to archness that occasionally grates, and their lyrics don’t always match up to their more accomplished compositional work, over-relying on the repetition of trite phrases that can get annoying. Like so many ambitious bands of their ilk, they also fall into the trap of elongating their songs beyond their natural bounds, dragging a melody to breaking point where brevity would be far more effective. But ultimately they succeed in retaining the vast majority of the album’s appeal, even if they lack the means to fully recreate it, proving once and for all that simplicity isn’t always a bad thing.
(Photo: Anika)
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