The Cape May, Glass Mountain Roads

Calgary’s The Cape May is part of the current Canadian Invasion that’s sweeping the US, and their sound on Glass Mountain Roads is like Slint or Rex fronted by Will Oldham. They have an interesting combination of songwriterly melodies and indie-rock backbone and, most impressively, they use their additional instrumentation tastefully, with arrangements that feature the song rather than overwhelm it.

The most immediate songs come at the end, when they start slacking on Indie-Rock Rule #43 (“Vocals Shall Always Be Just Louder Than Guitars”). “Little & Hook” is a slow lament with a great chorus and an added slide guitar part enhances the desolation of the song beautifully. Ingeniously, they only get loud once, three minutes into the song.

“Still Island” is another slow song with a beautiful melody; the violin and cello accompaniment highlight the moodiness of the song. At one point the violin plays this crazy and cool part that’s slightly off-key and dissonant, which really adds to the atmosphere. It’s also very dynamic – on the choruses it gets only a little louder, but waits till the bridge to really blast off.

The other songs are interesting as well. With good songs, a unique sound, and a solid band (some nice drumming, in particular), The Cape May pulled off something good on Glass Mountain Roads. Hopefully they’ll continue in this direction, because they have a lot of potential.