My Latest Novel
Wolves
Bella Union
If parallel universes exist, then some sort of Sliders-type portal must have ripped open and let My Latest Novel pass on through. Straight from a version of Earth where Arcade Fire was formed not in Montreal but in Glasgow as a Belle & Sebastian side project, My Latest Novel’s debut album, Wolves, is a curious combination of epic orchestration and quiet harmonious dream songs that seems to make perfect sense, even in our world.
Instrumentally driven tracks fill most of the album with more emphasis on strings, eclectically powerful percussion and actual vocals than on comprehensible lyrics. In such songs as “When We Were Wolves” and “Ghost in the Gutter” short phrases are excessively repeated to an oddly powerful effect, usually mounting to thunderous crescendos. The vocal harmonies of the Deveney brothers and Laura McFarlane are created wonderfully throughout the album to an almost deceiving effect. Since their tempos and melodies tend to change at the drop of an eight-ton hat, moments of sleep-inducing humming have the tendency to end in blasts of intense military bass drums or a chorus of children yelling “pulling out my hair/pulling out my hair/ crushed by plastic Lego men.”
The album stands as a surreal sort of treat for fans of Arcade Fire; as though finding the Bollywood version of your favorite film, but then realizing that it just might be as good as the original, though you’d never admit it. No, not in this world.
-Published in The Rutgers Review March 27, 2007
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