July Talk’s sophomore record bristles with the electricity of connection – between singers Leah Fay and Peter Dreimanis and the characters inside the songs. What happens when connections are severed, too tight or aggressively pursued? These questions permeate the album from its first impression, a stunning cover painting of two hands touching by Toronto artist Charles Bierk.
July Talk’s swaggering rock ‘n’ roll is radio-friendly and straight-ahead more often than not, but the outfit’s dynamic – defined by relationship, a tangible tension stretched to its limit by Fay and Dreimanis’s push and pull – lifts them above many of their peers. Most bands fail to find that weapon of organic tension, if they ever even look. Touch doesn’t live up to the wild standards of the local group’s ballistic live shows, but its focus on connection elevates it to more than just riff-blasting fun (although that’s in good supply, too).
Dreamy, piano-based highlight Strange Habit, for example, explores the magnetism in toxic relationships, swelling to soundscapes that recall Broken Social Scene. Push + Pull stomps away as Fay and Dreimanis fight about self-destruction. Beck + Call, as arena-ready as it is, is by-the-numbers, but even the no-frills stuff has extra depth to it – like the Spoon-indebted Picturing Love with its stand against technology’s destruction of intimacy, or Now I Know’s sinewy 90s weirdness.
Still, the ambitious moments pay off most. Jesus Said So’s powerful, calculated polemic aims globally, railing against injustice worldwide, and the title track spotlights the pain and pleasure dynamic of relationships through anxiety-ridden noise. It’s the conclusion to the central argument: connection is necessary, painful, heart-wrenching, occasionally blissful, consistently life-altering. And always worth it.
Top track: Strange Habit
July Talk play the Danforth Music Hall on October 28 and 29.
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