Tuesday, February 27, 2007




Frog Eyes-Tears of the Valedictorian

Frog Eyes are true underdogs. they are practically the only indie band from Montreal that hasn't blown up in one way or another in the past two years. Which is both criminal and predictable, as they are both directly responsible for many of their more popular peers' sound *cough cough Wolf Parade cough* and one of the more clever and consistently interesting bands to crop up from that scene.

Carey Mercer's voice is a bit more restrained and a bit more accessible than previous albums. But the passion is still there.

I want to take a minute to acknowledge that, actually. Mr. Mercer has probably one of my FAVORITE voices in rock n roll. I rarely hear anyone sound like they really really mean it and I think its kind of fucked up and sad that people hear him and write his fucking tear my own head off urgency off as a gimmick. Listen closer. even if he is faking it, he does a better job than most of the other guys could if they had a gun to their nuts.

Tears of the Valedictorian isn't too much of a stray away from the rest of the Frog Eyes catalog. But it's such a simple and effective formula, and they're so far past the learning curve they could keep writing records like this for another decade and it wouldn't get old.

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