The second offering from Canadian
indie rock
stalwarts
Dan Bejar
(
Destroyer
,
New Pornographers
),
Spencer Krug
Sunset Rubdown
Wolf Parade
), and
Carey Mercer
Blackout Beach
Frog Eyes
) does its best to strip away the group's penchant for layering multiple songs atop each other, but a three car pile-up is still a pile-up, and listeners who have managed to remain immune to the trio's idiosyncratic brand of "thespian rock" will no doubt find much of
Enemy Mine
unlistenable. That said, fans of manic melodies, bohemian pageantry, and synapse melting lyricism have no greater modern champions than
Bejar
Krug
, and
Mercer
. Named for the 1985
Wolfgang Petersen
-directed, race relations sci-fi film that found
Dennis Quaid
delivering enemy
Louis Gossett, Jr.
's alien baby (out of
) on the volcanic planet Fryine IV,
walks a lo-fi, Berlin-era
Bowie
tightrope spooled out over an abyss filled with unreleased material from each artist's aforementioned bands -- the trio's musical styles and flowery "high speak" are so similar, that it can be difficult to match the singer to the song. The first half of
feels less collaborative, but yields some true gems in
"Paper Lace"
and
"Heartswarm"
-- the latter could've have easily been pulled from
's
This Night
. Midway in however, the trio tosses the bottle into the fire and throw their arms around one another for a good old-fashioned art rock beat-down on
"Peace,"
which sounds like the
The Folded Palm
Apologies to the Queen Mary
Your Blues
playing simultaneously on huge outdoor speakers, proving that when these gentlemen decide to get down to apocalyptic business, it's best to jump into the nearest foxhole and watch the fireworks from afar. ~ James Christopher Monger