- La La Land
- Plants and Animals
- Secret City
"Something's coming," forecasts singer-guitarist Warren Spicer on the chanting, peyote-dusted Undone Melody, "Something's coming." La La Land, the grand, magical album from Montreal's Plants and Animals, inspires this hallucination: A group of townsfolk eye the horizon, watching in awe as a gathering cloud of dynamic colours and blissful loud noise makes its way toward them. And then the din is upon them, around them, in a very great way. Psychedelic, amplified and momentous, songs are multifaceted, with a sense of Radiohead importance, Arcade Fire intensity and très cool dirty-basement rock and roll ( American Idol gets my vote as the missing link between Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street). The trio's last album, Parc Avenue, was nominated for the Polaris Prize. This new one should win it, and I'm not sure the voting should be all that close.
Plants and Animals play Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern Tuesday; Quebec City, Wednesday; Montreal, Thursday; Ottawa, Friday; Peterborough, Ont., Saturday; and continuing west.