Hind Hind Legs

The second album by Montreal's Lovely Feathers starts with a song called "Pope John Paul" that sounds rather like a modern-day twee pop take on those multi-part songs that Paul McCartney specialized in between Abbey Road and Band on the Run, where bits that sound like scraps of several different uncompleted songs are stitched together into one pop-tastic whole. It's almost certainly the only rock song to pay tribute to the passing of the 264th pope, or at least the only one to include a spirited chorus of "Pope John Paul, where you from?/Krakow, Poland! Krakow, Poland!" That lyrical quirkiness continues throughout Hind Hind Legs — most of "In the Valley" consists of lead singers Mark Kupfert and Richard Yanofsky yelping "Rome is in the valley!" repeatedly over a galloping new wave-disco beat — but to their credit, it never feels forced in the usual "look at us, we're so zany!" manner. Musically, things are pretty seriously amped up — it's not a coincidence that one of the album's best songs is called "Frantic" — but producer Jimmy Shaw (guitarist in Toronto dance-rockers Metric) and the band also display a remarkable sense of dynamic. Album highlight "Photocorners" makes excellent use of an old Balkan music trick, gradually speeding up the chorus into a frenetic explosion and then stopping on a dime to begin the slow build again. That sort of lyrical and musical cleverness can cause listener fatigue in some, but Hind Hind Legs is sure to appeal to those with a taste for smart-alecky surrealism and ingenious, over the top hooks.