The words "Canadian indie rock" don't have the same shine they once did, but in a year when bands with guitars faded further in popularity, Halifax-bred musicians Seamus Dalton and Josh Salter have made not one, but two of the best home-grown pop albums of the year. If Nap Eyes' sophomore effort Thought Rock Fish Scale — which both band members were a part of — was "the year's first classic indie rock album," then Happy Pop Family, Monomyth's first with multi-instrumentalist Scott Grundy (Heaven For Real) and bassist Andrew Mazerolle, may be the last.
As Salter recently told Exclaim!, Happy Pop Family is an album without a real concept. Instead, it's a record by four friends made up of bite-sized, easily digestible earworms that continue a tradition first laid out by their scenester forefathers in the Super Friendz and Sloan.
Even more concise than 2014's Saturnalia Regalia! (most songs clock in under three minutes) and with less string-skipping, Happy Pop Family is a melodic, riff-y, playful affair that references the past, both sonically and lyrically ("Cool Blue Hello," with its allusion to early '90s power pop group Cool Blue Halo and their hometown hit Kangaroo; "Fuck With Me," which expertly lifts a chorus from the Human League for its ending), but with enough Millennial malaise to keep things current ("Aloha"; "Re: Lease Life (Place 2 Go)," an East Coast, equally existential version of "Stoned and Starving" if there ever was one).
If you see these guys, buy them a beer, because they're keeping the Canadian indie rock dream alive.
(Mint Records)As Salter recently told Exclaim!, Happy Pop Family is an album without a real concept. Instead, it's a record by four friends made up of bite-sized, easily digestible earworms that continue a tradition first laid out by their scenester forefathers in the Super Friendz and Sloan.
Even more concise than 2014's Saturnalia Regalia! (most songs clock in under three minutes) and with less string-skipping, Happy Pop Family is a melodic, riff-y, playful affair that references the past, both sonically and lyrically ("Cool Blue Hello," with its allusion to early '90s power pop group Cool Blue Halo and their hometown hit Kangaroo; "Fuck With Me," which expertly lifts a chorus from the Human League for its ending), but with enough Millennial malaise to keep things current ("Aloha"; "Re: Lease Life (Place 2 Go)," an East Coast, equally existential version of "Stoned and Starving" if there ever was one).
If you see these guys, buy them a beer, because they're keeping the Canadian indie rock dream alive.
