Peter Wolf Crier
Garden of Arms
Jagjaguwar

I was indeed taken and charmed by Peter Wolf Crier's debut album Inter-Be last year. Garden of Arms is the Minneapolis duo's follow up. Will gents Peter Pisano and Brian Moen deliver an album full of quality pop Jagjaguwar style twice in a row?

Yes, it seems so. Garden of Arms is an eleven-song album, opening with the somewhat XTC-ish (or XTC jamming with Animal Collective) "Right Away". Next track, "Beach" is a swirling, flushing wave of a song. The songs on Garden of Armswere written at home while resting and calming down after heavy touring (a hundred shows in six months) following last year's debut. "Krishnamurti" is sort of a 60s upbeat pop song, sugar-coated with psychedelic pop flakes. Neat. Golden, twisted pop tracks keep stumbling off the album; "Cut a Hand", "Settling It Off", "Loud Enough to Know", "Never Meant to Love You", and the almost dizzying closer, "Wheel".

Peter Wolf Crier is really something else, and they really know how to create engaging music. Imagine a mixture of Death Cab For Cutie, Animal Collective, Rogue Wave, Caribou, Eels and Grizzly Bear. But also the aforementioned XTC, and - as I mentioned when reviewing Inter-Be - Bon Iver.

I can just repeat what I said last time: 'the stamp of Jagjaguwar is a stamp of quality'.

Copyright © 2011 Håvard Oppøyen