Clues - ST

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Haarp	03:22
	2	Remember Severed Head	02:59
	3	Approach the Throne	04:16
	4	In the Dream	03:52
	5	You Have My Eyes Now	04:10
	6	Perfect Fit	03:25

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	Elope	05:10
	2	Cave Mouth	03:58
	3	Crows	03:19
	4	Ledmonton	04:22
	5	Lets Get Strong	03:31

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Information/Write-up

Clues was founded by Alden Penner and Brendan Reed, both active for years in the Montreal music scene. Alden was one-half of Unicorns, a band that burned bright and fast at the beginning of the century, and Brendan has been a member of a number of groups, including the endless, Endless Forever. They began building Clues quietly and in near-secrecy during the summer of 2007, playing a series of unadvertised shows in small Montreal venues. Their early performances elicited passionate responses and made it clear that Alden had an awesome batch of new tunes in the works, a glorious voice to deliver them with, and a brilliant foil in Brendan as his co-conspirator.

By 2008, friends Ben Borden, Lisa Gamble, and Nick Scribner had been recruited from the Montreal art and music scenes; a few more exuberant shows went down, the sound building and strengthening every time. With the band’s foundations fully cemented, Clues began work on a debut record towards the end of the year.

During live shows and on recordings, the band share and trade-off on an extensive array of instruments and create a twitchy, urgent, utterly original music that expands Montreal’s (already diverse) pop music lexicon. Clues incorporates multiple drummers, horns, a table of fried electronics (including a Commodore 64 and an OLPC), saw and pianette alongside their trusty electric guitars and basses.

Through their founding and early work as a band, Clues has remained close to home, dedicated to collaborating with and supporting fellow independent artists. In 2008, Reed started VillaVillaNola, a digital music store featuring recordings by predominantly local artists who have flourished underground but who otherwise receive sparse attention. Strong ties to the independent music community, together with shared ideals, led Clues to collaborate with Montreal’s Constellation, who released the band’s debut record in May of 2009.

Album reviews
This is a truly unmissable record standing out among a season of great albums. Montreal’s Clues have created a magnificent, off-kilter, decimated orchestral epic or a record…Each track on Clues presents something new and different, ever-shifting slightly in tone and style: bespoke and hand-wrought with emphatic care, yet each bearing the unmistakable loops and whorls of their gifted craftsmen.
-SUBBA-CULTCHA

This album exudes an emotion, a specific sound that I’ve been looking for all my life…after experiencing this masterpiece from Clues, I sat there stunned, clicked back on the first track and took the musical journey over and over again. This album has perfectly planted twists, turns, and tempo changes, and the tone of the album, if plotted on a chart, would move rapidly up and down. This will ultimately hurt Clues, as I find it’s impossible to understand/fall in love with the album after one listen. It’s a tough album to crack and demands the listeners’ utmost attention. The album is strong start to finish, without a misstep or a track out of place. I urge you to give this album at least two listens all the way through…and if it’s not for you, then so be it. But in my mind this is one of the most important albums of the decade and demands the attention of anyone who is remotely interested in music. 10.0
-WELISTENFORYOU (First-ever 10.0 rating!)

On their startling, intricate debut, Montreal’s Clues enter the alternate universe of the Flaming Lips for a blast of contemporary underground pop driven by angular arrangements and gritty noise. Sudden and unexpected, Clues lead listeners on in a glorious way.
-EXCLAIM

The LP sparkles…From start to finish, Clues packs in surprises…‘In The Dream’ is delightfully unsettling and mysterious, and ‘Perfect Fit’ is a mini schizophrenic symphony with constantly changing tempos.
-NPR

Certainement le meilleur disque montréalais depuis Funeral. 5/5
-NIGHTLIFE MAGAZINE

Clues —the long-time-coming post-Unicorns outfit for Alden Penner, centered around he and one-time Arcade Fire drummer Brendan Reed— remind me of the ‘90s, but in a fashion that has nothing to do with hipster contrivance. This Clues record isn’t one that’s immediately gratifying, but one that rewards persistence and patience. Where current release schedules are clogged with immediately-pleasing, quickly-disposable blog-music, Clues have made an album that demands repeated listens. Which is probably its most ’90s-like quality of all.
-ABOUT.COM

Those familiar with Penner won’t have to scrutinize this record all that closely to pick out connections to his past work. His instantly recognizable voice rings out on album opener “Haarp,” alternating between explosive shouts and fragile whispers before giving way to his signature riff-packed, melancholic guitar work. But, this isn’t a hollow rehash or cheap Unicorns imitation. While the music here may be, to some degree, in the same vein, the more obvious connective threads are merely glowing accents in a larger patchwork of sounds. Gone are the chintzy keyboards, silly call-and-response, and absurd, over-the-top antics. Yet, for what Clues may sacrifice in pure charm, they make up for with greater patience and maturity. Now teamed with co-songwriter Brendan Reed (formerly of Les Angles Morts and Arcade Fire), Penner’s compositions seem tempered to fit a more grandiose musical vision that does well to set itself apart from even the sizeable weight of either’s former bands. The more I listen to their eponymous debut, the more I’m convinced by their sound and Penner’s growth as a songwriter. There are no obvious compromises or overcompensations. Instead, it all feels very singular and organic…a difficult feat indeed.
-TREBLEZINE

Every track sees their instruments brilliantly colliding, producing a meritorious record with exceptional tracks like “You Have My Eyes Now,” “Perfect Fit,” “Elope,” and “Crows.” Early as it may be, the Clues have definitely earned a spot on my favorite albums of 2009.
-SHORT AND SWEET NYC

Rich and fulsome, exciting and extremely melodic…a standout album of 2009. No question.
-OCEANS NEVER LISTEN

An eclectic mish-mash of styles and moods—not only from song to song, but even within the same tune, as Clues prefer non-linear structures to typical verse-chorus-verse patterns. It’s a perfect mix of catchy pop and off-the-wall weirdness, and a brilliant addition to the Montreal indie rock canon.
-DISCORDER

Their debut LP makes pop fun again with morbid words pressed right up against fevered drums and watery guitars in a seductive dance of hooks and melody. There’s a strong element of fun throughout Clues, but it’s coupled with some impressive pop composition. I don’t want to throw the Beatles in this review, but some of the songwriting similarities are impossible to ignore. Like The White Album there’s no pop emotion Clues won’t play with. It’s nice to hear an album that’s so varied, yet so cohesive. Over time, Clues becomes a shower and a grower, with an emphasis of the latter.
-THE NEEDLE DROP

Clues can do no wrong. Their eponymous album is a reflection of just that, their ability to create a palette of music that is reminiscent of early Unicorns, employing abrupt changes in a mosaic of instrumentation. Much of Clues album is like throwing a rhythmic gymnast into North Korea’s Demilitarized Zone. Several moments consist of elegant leaps and graceful spins but ultimately there is satisfaction to be found in the rain of bloody mist that ensues after a tragic misstep.
-CA VA COOL

Constellation album description:
This is the wondrous debut record from Clues. Co-founders Alden Penner and Brendan Reed have been quietly nurturing this project in Montreal since the demise of their respective bands, Unicorns and Les Angles Morts. As a member of the short-lived Unicorns, Penner’s songwriting prowess was unveiled in a bright burst of mysterious and kaleidoscopic energy, in the form of a single full-length album (released in 2003) and countless live shows.

Penner’s voice, guitar and unique lyrical vision now guide Clues, with humble authority, originality and intent. Wedded to Reed’s superlative compositional and arranging acumen (and awesome drumming, among other instrumental skills) and abetted by multi-instrumentalists Ben Borden (Les Automates de Maxime de la Rochefoucauld), Lisa Gamble (Gambletron, Evangelista, Hrsta) and Nick Scribner (Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble), the band delivered sporadic and fantastic local performances through 2008. They then entered the Hotel2Tango studio (with Radwan Moumneh engineering) to lay down eleven songs in a feverish session during a Montreal winter deep freeze. The resulting album radiates a very special warmth and urgency, full of secrets, smiles, snarls and sing-a-longs.

This debut record yields one undeniable tune after another. It is one of those albums that coheres effortlessly in spite of the restless energy and distinct identity of each song – nothing ever really sounds or stays the same, but neither are there any forced spastics or facile schizophrenics. Forged from postpunk, no-wave and psych influences, Clues compose a rare breed of complex pop anthems that consistently inscribe their own perfect limits, without overreaching and without pandering. The overriding aesthetic avoids ornate decadence and stringent economy in equal measure. An authentic, unfussy and stirringly epic little sonic world unfolds: idiosyncratic and enigmatic, but exuberantly infectious and approachable.

Clues offer up a highly original, intensely committed and hugely satisfying definition of indie rock and we are genuinely thrilled to be shepherding it into world.

Ben Borden
Lisa Gamble
Alden Penner
Brendan Reed
Nick Scribner

Guests
Thierry Amar
Noah Cannon
Nathan Gage
Ben Howden

Recorded by Radwan Moumneh at Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango
Additional recording by Mark Lawson at Petite Eglise and Efrim Menuck at H2T
Mixed by Radwan Moumneh & Clues at H2T
Mastered By Harris Newman at Greymarket

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