Montreal’s Plants and Animals announced themselves to the world in 2008 with Parc Avenue. Named for the stretch of road that connects their city’s downtown with the trendy Mile End neighborhood, Parc Avenue the album is, like its namesake, a lengthy, sprawling record that unifies its various voices (fluttering folk, noise hurricanes, aughts-era indie, main-stage pop-rock) on the strength of charm alone.
Like Avenue du Parc, Plants and Animals have changed. In the years since their debut, they’ve developed into mature songwriters, leaving much of their youthful polyglottism behind for a sophisticated brand of musicianship not unlike The Walkmen circa You & Me and Lisbon.
On April 29, they’ll release their fourth album, Waltzed in from the Rumbling, on Secret City. They’ve already dropped a pair of singles in the shuffling “No Worries Gonna Find Us” and the gang-sung “Stay,” and today we’re thrilled to be premiering a video of the group performing the latter track live at Montreal studio Mixart. While it starts gently, behind Warren Spicer’s acoustic guitar line and cooed vocals, this live version ripens and bursts in a maelstrom of sound.
“Playing this song is like a bull ride or getting a new puppy and trying to play it cool while it drags you around like a moth on a hot lightbulb, knocking over people’s drinks and children,” drummer Matthew Woodley says.
“You’ve got el mariachi guitar guy hyper strumming, the drummer on the other side of the time-space continuum playing a dub reggae beat, and the other guitar playing the part of Hephaestus, son of Zeus and Hera, making laser hammers in his volcano shop. The singer becomes unbound—reenacting the emotional journey of the bull before, during and after the rodeo. The backup singer is the graceful ego to his raging id. The bass is the true bond. It’s an aircraft carrier. An oil rig pumping unrefined love from the core of the Earth and shooting it into the sky in an infinite explosion of blood reds, supernova yellows and neon night blues. That’s more or less how it feels from the drum throne.”
Gird thyself and check it out below, along with Walzted in from the Rumbling‘s art and track list.
Waltzed in from the Rumbling track list
“We Were One”
“No Worries Gonna Find Us”
“Fata Morgana”
“Stay”
“All of the Time”
“So Many Nights”
“Flowers”
“Je voulais te dire”
“Off the Water”
“Johnny is a Drummer”
“Pure Heart”
Waltzed in from the Rumbling is out April 29 on Secret City.
