Cannonballs, Cannonballs

Not to be confused with the electronic group the Boats, or Boat, the lo-fi indie rock trio, Winnipeg’s Boats draw from their new Kill Rock Stars labelmates the Decemberists for inspiration, and, like their counterparts, they fill folky singalongs and chamber pop shanties with high drama and bombastic instrumentation. Cannonballs, Cannonballs is a predictably indulgent production, and the open space around the quartet is packed with keyboards, trumpets, trombones, and a full choir. But the wildest part about their music is that Mat Klachefsky sounds a lot like a character voiced by Mel Blanc. This often makes Boats seem like a novelty act. If you can look past the cartoonish, Tweety Bird/Porky Pig qualities of his nasally voice, everything else is Canadian baroque pop by the book.