Album Review: The Darcys – “Warring”

By: Mehek Seyid (@whatthemehek) –

Toronto-based quartet The Darcys close out their trilogy of albums with their strongest effort to date. Their new album, Warring, out September 17th via Arts & Crafts, not only solidifies The Darcys’ potential to become indie darlings beyond Canadian borders, but it also proves that taking more time to work on a project can result in an incredibly strong deliverable. This one is worth the effort, and the wait.

Over the album’s opening wails on “Close to Me”, frontman Jason Couse sings, “I’m slipping, slipping/I lose control/start to close my eyes/and I can’t get back”, unintentionally describing how immersive the experience is while listening to this album. The sonic structure of the album is complex, featuring a mesh of haunting crescendos, slow tempo kick drums against piano melodies, and at times, upbeat, indie-anthems. They manage to find the right balance of the band’s more conventional sound from their self-titled debut and the experimental attitude from their Steely Dan cover album, A J A.

Lead single “The River” is very much representative of this idea. While the song initiates with Couse telling a tale of a struggle to hold on over an eerie series of guitar chords, it is slowly built upon with a steady clap-like sound, and just when one thinks the band is about to leap into an explosive chorus, they bring it right back down, and Couse appropriately asks during this build-up “Are you reaching?” Although The Darcys certainly do extend themselves, they fall short as they tell themselves to “Stop” over and over again. Yet somehow the conscious decision to do this is not disappointing. There is something incredibly human about controlling oneself and submitting to defeat in certain situations. The Darcys attempt at reflecting this idea is incredibly successful, especially against so many other high achieving tracks.

“The Pacific Theatre” and “Itchy Blood” are two particular standouts on the record. The former is a melancholic wonder that gives Couse’s vocals the chance to shine as well as act as one of the album’s more lyrically optimistic moments.  The latter is reminiscent of Bloc Party’s hit album, Silent Alarm, with as well as its story about a push-and-pull relationship against an infectious drum pattern that you can’t help but nod your head to, especially when its layered between semi-electronic waves pulsing through the chorus. This kind of momentum continues on in “Pretty Girls”, which begs for a live performance and simultaneous dance party.

While many bands are good at maintaining consistency on an album, it’s usually at the cost of creativity. The Darcys have created an album that allowed them to flex their musical muscles in various directions while unifying its tracks with its thematic concepts of loss, struggle, and contemplation, which go head-to-head with tinges of hopeful wishes. Although it may not seem groundbreaking in the overall indie scheme, it’s an album that will help them capture new audiences and mark the beginning of a new successful chapter with more records that use a similar formula (even if it takes three years to come to fruition).

Essential Tracks: “The River”, “Close to Me” and “The Pacific Theatre”