The Most Serene Republic - Phages EP (2006)

Holy Shit this is a good record! Charlatantric posted it as his best record of 2006. I had heard of The Most Serene Republic before and wasnt terribly impressed. It sounded good, but I was into a bunch of other similar things (brokenssocialscene...ahem!)so I let it pass by. When I randomly picked this up I decided to give them a second chance having heard numerous good things about the record. Giving it an open ear I found myself not terribly impressed. I felt like I'd heard it before and ignored it for a few weeks. Well last night when I was doing work here I put it on and maybe its 'cause I was paying attention to my work, or maybe 'cause I wasnt bing my usual picky self, but I played the whole thing and found myself nodding my head and tapping my feet and repeatedly smiling over and over. Not just passively or complacently, I was rocking the fuck out. I was so psyched! I listened to it twice, which is a rarity, and when interupted by phone calls would start the song over so I could hear the whole thing from beginning. I felt the songs just deserved that kind of attention. All this after thinking it wasnt that great. I put it on my iPod this morning and listened to it at least 5 times today (even more rare), restarting songs when interupted just because they sounded so good, and so full of detail, and warmth, and love of the craft.. The atmospheres are airy and propulsive at the same time and the drumming is seriously top-notch. There are both male and female vocals, often singing together and weaving in and out of each other. The Most Serene Republic is a holy union and could easily remain as addictive as it is right at this very moment. Charlatantric, you were right.

Now the details: the band is from Ontario, Canada, they function as a six piece and have previously released one full length record named Underwater Cinematographer, which I think I may have to look into one more time. They are signed to a cool label, Arts & Crafts, and to top it all off they are a handsome bunch. The only problem I can forsee is that I am probably gonna play this record out in a week if I keep listening to it so much.