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Album reviews Music

The High Dials

Five albums in, the High Dials from Montreal have homed in on a sound that bridges the softer edges of shoegaze and psych rock and melodic indie pop. It wafts and whirls on quiet synth lines, Robbie MacArthur’s reverb guitar and breathy vocals by Trevor Anderson.

Apparently the band, of which MacArthur and Anderson are the only steady members, considered breaking up prior to diving into the album’s making. As well, the songs came out of Anderson’s work as a late-night club DJ in Montreal.

Yet the 14-track album is devoid of angst, grit or seediness of any kind. Instead, it’s innocuously pretty, its gentleness producing a lulling effect. “I start to float away when I hear that sound,” Anderson sings on Impossible Things, and we know the feeling. But folkier and more passionately delivered material comes in the latter half, adding earthiness and vitality.

Top track: Flower On The Vine

The High Dials open for Sam Roberts at Massey Hall on Saturday (February 14).

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