Decades

Toronto can be a pretty unforgiving city when it comes to aspiring musicians and artists. It's an expensive place for a band to live, and between touring, rehearsing and recording, it can be difficult to find a way to pay the bills. The city doesn't provide the type of environment in which artistic aspirations can be pursued half-heartedly — stringent hard work is a necessity. And in the end, as Toronto, ON-based quartet Decades have demonstrated on their self-titled debut, that committed work ethic the city forces upon its musicians often produces great results. Over the past two years, Decades have made a name for themselves opening for acts such as Deerhoof and Handsome Furs, touring with the likes of the Weeknd and k-os, and signing to T.O. label White Girl, all while running day jobs and maintaining a consistent rehearsing schedule. The end result of this precarious juggling act is realized on the band's fantastic debut. Decades draws strong influences from '80s new wave, while also demonstrating an apparent ambition not to be simply pinned down as a piece of post-punk revivalism. Tracks like single "In Sequins" certainly bring to mind the likes of Joy Division, with darkly reverbed guitars complemented by Mike Kaminski's soft vocal delivery. But Kaminski also possesses the ability to produce an effective growl on tracks like opener "Tonight Again," demonstrating a background in more hard-hitting garage rock. Decades looks to be the beginning of a payoff for the band, promising an exciting future and proving that hard work ultimately pays off.