Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

Shhh…I have a secret for you.

What, you say? That I’ve been MIA for a long time? Yeah, this is true, but I’m taking about something secretly canadian.

I gotta tell you that Secretly Canadian’s lineup gets more and more impressive by the week. The Seattle-based collective Throw Me the Statue released their second LP Createresque last August, and I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while now. As legend has it, the idea behind Throw Me the Statue began as a sort of mixtape for a girl, and has flourished under Scott Reitherman’s guidance into a rhythmic, cerebral type of indie pop, playing off the delight of syncopation and falsetto. Sure enough, Pitchfork gave them a not-so-flattering 6.1, which really only means that they must actually be good. Another story for another day.

But Createresque. Bonafide good. I mean what a cheerful optimism embedded in the infections bassline in “Pistols” and the crashing waves of drums in “Tag”. “Baby You’re Bored” is reminiscent of Noah and the Whale in the sense of capturing that sort of care-to-the-wind, comical pop (but more harmonious perhaps!). And the cheezy echoing hat-tip to the 80s in “Cannibal Rays” is as enjoyable as it is just plain fun! That chorus will not get out your head for days, and neither will that smile on your face. You know what I’m talking about…..

Best line: (in “Pistols”): “These lonely brothers on the radio / If that’s a DJ I’m the pilgrim Mona Lisa”

Listen to “Cannibal Rays”

Listen to “Pistols“