Polytones

Five years is a long time to wait before releasing a debut album, but it should have some benefits too. After all, if a band haven’t gotten the hang of it after half a decade, they probably shouldn’t quit their day jobs. So was it worth the wait for the Polytones? Almost. Most of You and I Were Made of Dynamite is not immediately lovable, partly due to the fact that they haven’t quite perfected their pop skills yet. They can write good pop songs but many of them aren’t as catchy as they could (or indeed should) be, and if a band put too many hook-free pop songs on an album, I suspect it could tear apart the space-time continuum. And that’s a bad thing. Yet You and I Were Made of Dynamite is a very pleasant album that begins to hint at what lies ahead for the band. Their grasp of melancholy is near-perfect and the wistful vocals of Lesia Manchulenko really suits the music, but they aren’t quite there yet. Still, it is hard to argue with songs like "King of Siam” and "Broken Stems” and it is easy to see why they have become so popular in their native Ottawa. The Polytones are well worth watching out for in the future, and well worth listening to at the moment.