Reconstruction Site

Reconstruction Site is one of my favorite indie rock albums and I'm glad it got selected. The songs "One Great City", "The Reasons" and "Reconstruction Site" are fantastic and the rest is good too. I like the theme of the album and the way it is used within the lyrics.

I liked this OK, I wasn't over the moon about it. It is certainly in the wheelhouse of things I like - some strong Mountain Goats vibes for instance. The lyrics sometime trying to hard I think, and the music needing some bit more of a hook or distinctiveness.

Exactly the kind of music ya boy loves

What are they putting in the water in Canada that seems to produce so many great, quirky bands? Bands that can craft a kick-ass song with odd takes on life that really stick with you? I haven’t heard of The Weakerthans before, but as I put this on I immediately was inspired to start checking out those lyrics. By the time “Plea from a Cat Named Virtue” came on I was all-in. Then I start hearing pleas from a cat to a possibly-quite-depressed and probably-concerningly-unstable owner, offering advice to stop staying home talking to themself, watching TV and drinking and instead opening up the house, “invite the tabby two doors down, You could ask your sister if she doesn’t bring her basset hound.” Brilliant! “Maybe you could try to let your losses dangle off the sharp edge of a century?” Great advice, cat! I wonder if my cats aren’t trying to tell me such things? This album cover had me thinking I was in for and interesting listen and The Weakerthans delivered! Something really Canadian in being able to craft clever, catchy songs with deeper underpinnings that you can really enjoy but, once you take a second to consider, lead you to some interesting places. Terrific pick! I am so excited to check out more from The Weakerthans. And listen more closely to my cats. Post Script: I just checked out the Wikipedia page and found out this album: “A song cycle about grief, regret, loss and eventual hope, the album is thematically framed by three tracks, "(Manifest)", "(Hospital Vespers)" and "(Past-Due)", which set three different sonnets following a terminally ill hospital patient into the aftermath of his death to the same melody.” Well definitely going to give this another listen and follow more of the lyrics, but if that doesn’t attest to The Weakerthans’ ability to explore some very dark places with some really catchy tunes I don’t know what would. Incredible!

I really liked this and will need to revisit. Canadian Indie Rock so rooted in all things good to my ears

This is perfectly fine, plus great band name, and quite good fun and well-above-average, upper-right quadrant of the clever-literary matrix of early-aughts indie rock (which is saying something given the many artists flooding that particular zone at that particular time In that vein, one might say this is Manitoba’s version of Fountains of Wayne.) Playing is crisp, energetic and genre-sampling (a little alt-country twang here, a little punky/alt-y lick there). One’s a sucker for songs about or art from Winnipeg (see Guy Maddin The Saddest Music of the World), as well as Martin Amis references. (Speaking of Winnipeg, are these cats to be rated above The Guess Who? One votes yay.) Not that this is life-changing, just well conceived and well executed and, taken in the spirit in which it’s quite clearly offered, it’s hard to argue with a single note of it. So what one wants to argue with is the original Pitchfork review (5.6) which is centered on it being tiresomely clever, too much, smug, self-impressed, etc. -- all the adjectives you’d expect for Decemberists’ reviews (which are almost uniformly positive and rhapsodic). So what gives, Pitchfork – like anti-Canadian bias? Got that one wrong, they did, except for their appreciation of the cover. Rounding up for all that (but only slightly and also because Canada). Thanks, recommender. This is worthy to know and one will spend some time on the back catalog and the other branches of the Winnipeg musical tree, which is far more extensive than one woulda guessed.

Benediction is a great song.

Super meh

Bland. It was only 40 minutes but it felt longer. Just felt limp the entire time and never really got out of first gear. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Solid listen, a nice combo of indie with subtle but strong roots in Midwest Emo – some riffs reminded me of American Football even. Appreciated the narrative-style vocals, usually not one for extensive stories in the lyrics but the deadpan delivery made it work well with the instrumentals. Cool LP, added a few of these to my library and will probably check out the rest of these guys' discography.

Indie rock, post-punk. Ni fu ni fa.

Reconstruction Site sounds like a lot of 2000s indie rock, which again wasn't my favourite stuff, but it has its moments. It's rarely bad or annoying, it's lyrically interesting, and there are a couple of very good tracks of which Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call was my favourite. Probably scrapes a low 3 because all the 2s we've had were various shades of boring or crap and this was neither.

This is like the fifth indie album I've generated on here with that exact shade of beige on the album cover. And they all sound the exact same. Beige indie rock. New subgenre.

2

Ge,, a slightly more sincere Ookla the Mok

Some guy from Propaghandi branches out to indie rock during the early noughts, and with his new band, writes and releases songs with very interesting lyrics, apparently serving an overall "concept" that's dear to his heart. Unfortunately, said songs are a little underwhelming at times when it comes to memorable melodies. Some arrangements work well, others miss the mark -- in the end, nothing to be ashamed of, but not 'essential album fodder'. With those sorts of records, I'm always wondering if the lyrical conceits and/or lyrical ambitions are not a trap for the songwriter, leading him to complicate the vocal lines whereas that wasn't needed here. Some of those songs feel so... chatty. Or, I don't know... Maybe it's just John K. Samson's voice rubbing me the wrong way. Yet I'm not sure it is that, because I have quite enjoyed his performance in his 2016 solo album *Winter Wheat*. All I can say for sure is that *Reconstruction Site* didn't click for me. 2/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes (5 + 2) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 66 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 85 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 161 (including this one) ---- Emile... Je viens de lire ta dernière réponse. Je vais essayer de trouver le temps de rédiger la mienne pendant la période des fêtes. D'ici-là, ben bonne année!