Album Details

• Artist: Plants And Animals
• Album: The End Of That
• Label: Secret City
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2012-04-02

Montreal trio Plants and Animals harken back, if not in sound then it attitude, of the late punk era. Confused as to whether to either fall apart in a blaze of glory or get serious and explore the power they feel, the band alternately makes a great racket and then stumbles into clichés. But that is what makes "The End of That" intriguing; you get the sense that the band is thinking on its feet, sometimes coming up short sometimes hitting the sweet spot, but never slowing down or throwing out an idea until is at least given a try.

"Before" is a poetic, emotive country tune, acoustic based but dominated a deep and dreamlike groove from the electric guitars; those guitars will save many a tune ere.  While "The End of That" is a fairly pedestrian mid-tempo country rocker, "Song for Love" is the real deal-greasy, raw, psych-country, a true stunner and a song with fresh ideas for the genre.

Then a slip backward into "Lightshow," the not so successful experiment into emo-country, though again the guitars are solid and often great. Fear not, for long come "Crisis!" and "2010," both of which are brilliant, sloppy and loud, eminiscent of Black Lips but without the evil intent; clearly Plants and Animals' stock goes up as often as they turn the volume knob in the right direction.

The tight new wave-ish "Control Me" shows yet another dimension of the band's mastery of distortion;  "No Idea" is a brittle quiet track that is no letdown from the previous onslaught,as it has that poetic dignity of "Before," but with a better groove. The closing "Runaways" feels like a throwaway in comparison, though it has its moments.

Warren C. Spicer, Nic Basque andMatthew‘Woodman' Woodley make a great noise even when they lose their way. But it isclear from the stronger songs and from the willingness to venture intouncharted waters that Plants and Animals are a band to keep an eye on. "The End of That" is gritty sloppy and unpredictable, which is what you want from a band that clearly loves to hear itself blasting out of their speakers.

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