Young Galaxy : Shapeshifting

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/younggalaxyshapeshifting.jpg" alt="Young Galaxy : Shapeshifting" /> <span style="font-style: normal">While it may not be the style fans were expecting, Young Galaxy has done well to drastically change and...
Young Galaxy : Shapeshifting
7.4 Paper Bag
2011 

Young Galaxy : Shapeshifting From their debut, self-titled LP, it was clear that Young Galaxy had found a very interesting niche in the Canadian music scene.  While 2007’s Young Galaxy (QRO review) swam in a sea of the dreamy popular song of countrymen Broken Social Scene (QRO spotlight on) and Stars (QRO live review), Catherine McCandless and Stephen Ramsay’s project managed to come out sounding more sensible than the former, and less melodramatic than the latter.  2009’s Invisible Republic (QRO review) presented a continuation of that pragmatic pop environment, and although that album failed to captivate quite so much as its predecessor, it did produce very notable numbers “Destroyer”, “Light Years”, and “Long Live” – the epic quality of which left listeners waiting eagerly for the band’s next musical endeavor.  As the calendar turned from 2010 to 2011, those expectations also turned into something much more tangible: the Montreal-via-Vancouver band’s latest creation, Shapeshifting. 

“Nth” and “The Angles…” kick off this third full length in a truly intriguing fashion.  Their synth pop instrumentation, looping melodies and all around hazy atmospheric feel anchor an eighties flashback feel – a quality that’s all well and good, but one that just does not resemble the band that fans are accustomed to.  Just as you start to wonder if you misread the name on the side of the record, the wonderfully hazy strokes of synth and relatively conventional vocal style on “Blown Minded” lead into the fast paced atmospheric number “We Have Everything”, and after ten or so minutes, Young Galaxy finally seems recognizable amid the new wave of old pop. 

While the band’s notable shoegaze aesthetique is still found at the music’s foundation, there seems to be a very different recipe in the layers above it on this latest album.  Seemingly no longer content to stand in the shadow of their Canadian siblings, McCandless and Ramsay have ditched their Peter-Gabriel-era-Genesis sound, or rather flashed forward a couple of decades with it, to the Depeche Mode-ish synth pop of the eighties.  “Peripheral Visionaries” seems the closest clash of the two, but Shapeshifting relies a bit too heavily on the latter.

Still, one cannot fault a band for shaking things up, and the band is rewarded for their originality in the albums closing seconds. 

While they weigh unsuspectingly on the listener, the ensuing forty five minutes come to a peak first on elegant throwback track “BSE”, and finally on the albums catchy and well written closer, “Shapeshifting”.  Those last words have the biggest impact here, and while no tracks stand out as much as Young Galaxy‘s “Come And See” or Invisible Republic‘s “Destroyer,” the overall album does flow in a well executed haze of a style that is seen far too rarely today.  While it may not be the style fans were expecting, Young Galaxy has done well to drastically change and entirely stay the same.

MP3 Stream: “BSE”

{audio}/mp3/files/Young Galaxy – BSE.mp3{/audio}

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