Gordon B. Isnor, Creatures All Tonight

Remember that one episode of Alf when Lynn got dumped by her rocker boyfriend or something, so Alf wrote her a song called “Out of This World” and they made a faux-music video to go along with it? Well, that has nothing to do with Canadian Gordon B. Isnor’s Creatures All Tonight. Or maybe it does, I’m not sure. I can easily picture Alf making this album, an album I think I just ruined for myself.

Anyway, even though Creatures All Tonight sounds like it was made on a high-tech Casio, it’s well-executed. The man’s a talented musician and whoever drew the cover art is a talented artist. Either that, or they’re all on drugs, which is probably the case. The songs are catchy and drum machine-driven throughout.

Nasally vocals warrant critics to call it nerd-rock, but I don’t see it. Although said vocals tend to get old over the span of seven songs that Isnor gives us, they mesh well with the music, which switches tempos at just the right moments. Like I said, he’s a talented musician. The music arrangements are unpredictable and rich enough. The only help he gets on the album is from flautist Candice Lin; the rest of the music was one-man-banded. I bet Isnor and Aqueduct would get along.

Even though there are only seven songs, we still get a good 30 minutes’ worth of music, which is almost as long as modern albums are anyway. “Notorious Double Dippers” is a standout on the album, and the title track is the perfect closer, slowing everything down to a quiet, drawn-out finish. For a man who’s been making music since 1993, you’d think this would be a full album, but the fact he’s been making music for so long might mean he knows what he’s doing.