The GB Album Club 056 - Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans

Duders! Welcome to the 56th edition of the Unofficial Giant Bomb Album Club! Last week, we got down to some proggy neo-soul with Hiatus Kaiyote. This week, we go from an Australian band to Canada for some indie rock with Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans! This album was submitted by @galaxiid and you can listen with the links below:

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/album/14gpuI6JNy9gekaT0p6m9N?si=tL3_UxTXQGmTnD75OUcNmg

Apple Music:https://music.apple.com/us/album/reconstruction-site/1485041719

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcZMZxR9uxC87kV9jeVPlqAV85QVwO3Fm

The Unofficial Giant Bomb Album Club! You know what the fuck we did? We made a pool of albums in our Discord and pick one at random every week to listen to and discuss. This cycle will be wrapping up soon (finally), but if you want to get in on the next one, get down here. Now.

The 00's were a really solid time for Canadian indie pop and indie rock music. I already know this album fairly well. It has the early 00's western Canadian indie rock sound along with dry humour and sarcasm endemic to the Prairies to mix (see "One Great City!"). It definitely makes me nostalgic to listen to some songs off it since there were at least a couple of them on the radio here when I was a kid (Canadian content regulations required that a certain percentage of music on the radio be made by Canadians, so here in western Canada we had a lot of indie rock bands from the region show up on the radio a lot).

Favourite songs: "One Great City!", "Plea From a Cat Named Virtute", "Psalm for The Elks Lodge Last Call" (the first two of these are on a few of my playlists already)

Excited for some Canadian indie rock with The Weakerthans' "Reconstruction Site" this week. Thanks to @galaxiid for the pick!

This album hits all the right spots - catchy melodies, introspective lyrics, and just the right amount of grit. John K. Samson's songwriting shines, especially in tracks like "Plea from a Cat Named Virtute". The band's ability to switch between softer and more energetic moments is brilliant.

Overall, "Reconstruction Site" gets better with every listen. Can't wait to here everyone's thoughts!

Yup, that is a Canadian indie rock ass Canadian indie rock album!

I don't know what makes certain sectors of indie rock so identifiably Canadian to me (other than the direct naming of Canadian cities and so on), but if I didn't already know where this band was from, I'm reasonably sure I'd be able to guess. I went to a liberal arts college. You don't leave that experience without being able to tell the nuances between indie/alt rock bands, even if they're only slight. (Also something about the lead singer's voice reminds me of Raycevick.)

I'll be honest, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this. Or rather, I was looking forward to listening to it as I always look forward to listening to club stuff, but I wasn't confident I was going to like it. Indie rock and I have a bumpy relationship. I'm capable of liking it. Even loving it. But I grew up, and the emotionality people who grew up loving rock-oriented sounds imbue into indie rock frequently flies over my head. Or if I'm grumpy, I just think it's boring (If we ever do a hot takes post again, I'll do some indie rock takes.)

Thankfully the latter's not the problem here, and I left this album feeling pretty positive on it. It didn't rock my world or anything like that. But it did have an injection of energy I typically don't associate with indie rock. Some punk influence here and some power pop there. A variety in both its sonic palette and influences that gave me something to hold on to that makes it stand out to me.

It can get repetitive, some of the lyrics struck me as clunky, and the lead singer's voice isn't always for me. However, and I know this is kind of a weird compliment, if I cut my teeth on indie rock I could 100% see this as being my shit. It finds a really good balance between exploring much of what indie rock has to offer while also feeling personal. It didn't change my life, but it's solid.

Favorite Songs: "The Reasons" "Plea From a Cat Called Virtue" "Uncorrected Proofs"