Review Summary: An excerpt from some letter I wrote
It was the winter of 2012 and I was beginning the second semester of my freshman year of college. At the time I was still using iTunes to house my music library (I’ve since transitioned to the world of streaming music), and the program was continually giving me Apologies to the Queen Mary as an album recommendation. As I am always open to some turn-of-the-century Canadian indie-pop, I fired up whatever torrent downloader I was using at the time and gave the first few songs of the album a listen. In fact, I have a distinct memory of this occasion: I was in a study room in the library with two girls with whom I shared no romantic interest (though one I had considered flirting with in that event that she made the first move); I was wearing a crew neck sweatshirt that I had picked up at Value Village (or maybe Goodwill) and some jeans that I still own (though I now prefer to wear them cuffed); and the girls took a picture of me attempting to look like a duck with the help of two Pringles chips. (The picture quickly made its way onto Facebook.)
A few days later I was sitting on the toilet in my dorm room bathroom while the “Recently Added” playlist on my iPod (whose 160 gigs I was trying desperately to fill) blared on random from the Bose speakers my parents had gotten me as a Christmas gift. The playlist was comprised of Apologies to the Queen Mary and a bunch of albums that had been released very recently (selected with the aid of Pitchfork). I had just returned from track practice, and I had gotten in the habit of playing songs really loudly to drown out the sound of my roommate telling me how ***ty my taste in music was. All of a sudden I heard the twang of the strings on “Same Ghost Every Night” followed by Dan’s quavering voice, and I was ***ING INTRIGUED. My mind raced to think of what band on the playlist could be offering such a glorious track: “Is this Cloud Nothings? *** no. Death Grips? …Jesus.” The remainder of my *** was more agonizing than any bout of constipation could ever be, as I longed to know what I was hearing. After completing the duty, I made the three steps across my dorm room to the speakers in record time and saw the diamond-looking design of Apologies’ cover art displayed on my iPod. From there I was hooked.
After creating a Tumblr and naming it “Same Ghost,” the rest of Apologies’ magic began to reveal itself to me. “You Are a Runner” sounded like Jack White soundtracking some bizarre father/son Western film; “Grounds for Divorce” made my parents’ recent split feel more like an wild carnival ride than an unfortunate byproduct of infidelity; and “Dinner Bells” was a slow-burner that would have been a nice accompaniment to a make-out session (if those had ever occurred when I was sober). But it was “I’ll Believe In Anything” with its gloriously Victorian music video that solidified Apologies as an album that I could return to with frequency. I even tweeted “Give me your eyes / I need sunshine” once IN ALL CAPS! AND I HAVE A RULE AGAINST TWEETING LYRICS! (But I certainly don’t have a rule against tweeting in all caps). Spencer Krug's unharnessed vocal delivery and engaging lyrics left me craving more, so that’s what I awarded myself.
