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“Selling a dream. The new kind mixed with the old kind,” lyrics from their song The Market could be a mission statement for Edmonton’s the Provincial Archive.
After all, the band built its brand on a handmade, lo-fi mashup of literate indie rock, folktronica and moments of classic folk instrumentation. But while on 2010’s Maybe We Could Be Holy you can hear the experimentation at work, the process has been streamlined on their third full-length. The songs sound confident, clean and more meticulously rehearsed.
On Full Of Water and Bad Kids, the result is accessible Death Cab for Cutie-esque rock that hits all the pleasure centres of synth-pop and jangly guitar pop.
But the band hasn’t forgone eccentricity it’s just more subtly woven into the songs – jittering strings, sudden stark drum hits, occasional xylophone. At some of the rootsier moments, they seem to invent genres, like the sparse, acoustic-piano-driven barbershop jazz of closer The Lake.
Top track: Full Of Water
