Anachronisms is the sophomore album from Canadian indie-rockers Ketch Harbour Wolves who made a bit of a splash back in 2008 with their debut release Dead Calm Horizon. I have not heard the debut before so this is my first intoduction to the band and they have created an album that evokes a real feeling and weight to it through kind of abstract vignettes about what seems to be an ancient or mystical land and dealing with a lot of topics of alienation and loss, very common themes certainly in today’s music. This album initially came off a bit overwrought to me, but it has grown on me and I think it really has a lot of depth and strength to the songs and the sound of the band is one that while dark and moody is still very familiar and quite good.

The sound of the band kind of reminds me of Editors, with some strong piano touches throughout the record and a very atmospheric and dramatic backing band and deep vocals throughout (also not unlike Matt Berninger of The National), the music certainly has a indie-pop, listenability element to it that it is listener friendly, but they also build up some very nice dramatic moments in a lot of these songs that really take them well beyond being shallow indie-pop songs to being a rather solid collection of songs. A lot of dissonant guitars and kind of foreboding feelings in a lot of the songs make for a bit of a dark record, but it is carried through pretty well generally and doesn’t become too overbearing.

I do enjoy this album, and it has some excellent, heartfelt material on it. The songs are generally kind of told in this far off land kind of way, so it is not really a highly relatable album in the sense of time or place (hence the title I guess), it is actually pretty obscure and opaque in its lyrics, but it does cover some universal themes as I mentioned above and can evoke some pretty universal feelings along the way as well. As I said above, this has a great brit-pop piano/band dramatic vibe reminiscent of Editors or something like that (or a dark Coldplay), and they hit that sound just about perfectly here, and deliver it well in a way that makes it sound well put together and never hokey or overly pop (as can be a danger with that type of sound). This is a good one to check out from these Canadians and it is an album that will probably serve quite well in those wintry months coming up. The album definitely has a feel of vast spaces, lack of technology and kind of getting away from the modern world and into the wilderness or getting into an ancient era. The lyrical substance of the album aside, they have some solid songs, and it is a good listen through.