Wolf Parade

Montreal’s gifted and ambitious music scene has produced the “next” U2 (Arcade Fire) and Joni Mitchell (Leslie Feist), along with a ton of acts less immediately easy to categorize. Wolf Parade sure makes it tricky. These British Columbia refugees call to mind both the noodling, overly arranged side of 1970s rock and the bright, boppish, keyboardcentric buoyance of the most blatantly pop-friendly new wave of the 1980s. The five-piece, fronted by guitarists Spencer Krug (Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown) and Dan Boeckner (Handsome Furs), never settles for the joy of a simple melody when it can construct more complicated, four-minute narratives filled with dramatic interludes and glimmers of musical mystery. At Mount Zoomer, the group’s long-awaited second album, has all that and more.

Tracks like “Bang Your Drum” and “California Dreamer” aspire to an ornate, textured kind of storytelling, laced with lo-fi filigrees and introspective regard. The disc’s closing, nearly 11-minute “Kissing the Beehive” sweeps through enough artfully rendered emotions for a Broadway show. “I wish I could believe in you,” begins one line, before chords come splashing down, deliberating over wordless, symbolically mournful “ohhh-oh-ohhhs.” Actually, it’s pretty clunky.

The group’s affection for somewhat cheesy rhythms and keyboard voicings out of the “Big ’80s” bargain bin could be endearing to many, but it makes all the thoughtful material here harder to process. We won’t be dismissive, however: These guys really do wear their art on their sleeves.