Sound Kapital
Handsome Furs
“When I Get Back,” the opener of the Handsome Furs’ latest album, will be very off-putting if you always thought of Dan Boeckner as the guy who saved Wolf Parade from being just a bunch of Spencer Krug keyboard theatrics. Gone is the signature electric guitar, in come the synths and keys, and suddenly Handsome Furs sound like MGMT with more bass (and really, considering that Wolf Parade recently decided to go on indefinite hiatus, releasing a keyboard-heavy album makes things a bit too easy for a Freudian).

Once you withstand the initial shock, though, the rest of the album makes clear that Boeckner’s new favourite instrument is just a superficial change. Which means that hopefully you’re listening to Sound Kapital for its unabashed rock anthems, because that’s all you get. Even on “What About Us,” where the Furs do their best LCD Soundsystem impression, they cannot help but end the song with a stirring crescendo. Songs like “Serve the People” might even convince you that the band’s anthems are all the more rousing with synth as their focal point rather than guitar.

More than anything, though, Sound Kapital shows just how much Boeckner has become a model of consistency. You get the sense that he could take any throw-away line you give him and turn it into a battle cry. In fact, I plan to hire Boeckner to write the soundtrack to my life. That way, regardless of whether I’m slaying dragons or lounging on my couch watching old episodes of Seinfeld, I can always feel like I’m winning a dramatic fight against the malaise of modernity.