I'm not going to lie to you, I've had a pretty miserable last couple weeks. A monumental death in the family, a difficult trip to the funeral (Hey JetBlue, thanks for losing my bag and stranding me in New York without my winter coat or toothbrush), and plenty of other person drama that I won't post here because this is (barely) a respectable music blog and not some teenager's LiveJournal page (barely, again).
Truth be told, I'm still reeling from it all.
But then I watched this video:
That makes me happier than words can express.
We've been loyal supporters of underappreciated Montreal band Young Galaxy for quite awhile—a few years back they passed through town twice, once for a solo date at Towne Lounge and the other supporting their fellow Canucks in the Dears—but we're now ready to share the band with the rest of you. We're cool like that.
Young Galaxy's excellent new LP Shapeshifting (out on Tuesday) abandons the band's previously mopey shoegaze leanings for a colder, electronic sound that is pristinely assembled and anchored by the vocals of Catherine McCandless (Stephen Ramsay normally shares the vocal duties with McCandless, but he seems to take a backseat on Shapeshifting). Honestly, this is the best record of the year so far—it's still too early to make such outlandish claims, yet here I am doing just that—or maybe I'm just trying to cheer myself up. I just need to watch that video again.