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The Sweet Homewreckers
From the Letdown to the Comearound
Put On Your Drinking Cap Records
“If you’ve got the ’90s on your side, then you’re alright,” sing The Sweet Homewreckers—and if you do have the ’90s on your side, you can spend a fulfilling 37 minutes playing spot-the-influence with this
Peterborough student band’s debut album, coming up with something like Beulah covering Thrush Hermit with some early Pavement added for flavour.
If you don’t, you can just sit back and enjoy one of the finest Canadian indie pop records of the last few years in all its warmhearted, loose-limbed glory.
Rarely pushing the three-minute mark, the Homewreckers marry earnest, well-mannered jangle and classic rock ’n’ roll conceits to clever lyrics, a killer trumpet section and enough dissonant left turns to keep things interesting. Cam Malcolm’s about right when he says “My flats go sharpish naturally,” but anyone who’s made it through a Cuff The Duke (vigorously nodded to here on “True Love Denies” and “Sweet Casualty”) or Joel Plaskett record will have no trouble with his adolescent warble.
From the sexy, sparse, half-disaffected “Head Shots,” to the puppy-like enthusiasm of “Amplification,” whether they’re recounting Canadian history (“City on a Hill,” “Louis”) or mixing nature television and heartbreak (“Wild America”), The Sweet Homewreckers are damn near irresistible. This is the sort of
record that makes you think buying a round for the entire bar is a good idea. By the way, you still can’t afford it.
—Meghan Harrison
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