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Album Details

• Artist: Library Voices
• Album: Denim On Denim
• Label:
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: tosnob on 2010-05-19

From the moment I first heard the delicious pop of Regina's Library Voices I was hooked. The band's debut EP was a borderline masterpiece of call & response indie pop. This week the massive prairies collective has released its debut full length album Denim On Denim.

The album kicks off with what will soon come to be known as classic Library Voices form, the sugary sweet pop sing-along "Drinking Games". Songs like "Haunt This House", "Family Night", and "End Time" are bursting with hooks guaranteed to induce hip-shaking.

The arrangements on the new album are a little bit more diverse than on the EP. Horns and keyboards, while present the first time around, are far more prominent on tracks like "Insider Trading (On Outsider Art)" and the funky groover "Bookish", than ever before. Although it is those big, multi-part vocals that remain the band's signature.

On some levels though, the album fails to satisfy. It's not just down tempo tracks like "Model City" and "Balloon Menagerie", both of which come off as rather lifeless in comparison to the rest of the record. No it's something a little more fundamental. I think the band makes writing catchy pop tunes seem so effortless that one is left to wonder just how mindblowing the band could be if they put even a little bit more into it.

After an EP so good that it's difficult to find the words to accurately describe it, I was concerned that the band would disappoint over the course of a full length. How silly was I! Library Voices have come up with one of the finest indie pop albums of the year and are well on their way to becoming the next big Canadian indie export.

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