Vancougar

Canadian Tuxedo/ Mint Records

The name alone makes this band. Add in a Mint signing and it's all pop candy... pop candy, like pop rocks that smart inside of your mouth. Pop with a tart aftertaste. Not that these Vancougars are tarts just so you know.

As with a lot of bands in this stable, the New Pornographers loom large in the background. Vancougar toughen up the sound though. This fourth track plays like a doowop number from the musical Grease but if the school was DeGrassi. DeGreasey?

Only Good Days Caught On Camera

The Arkward Stage

Slimming Mirrors, Flattering Lights/ Mint Records

"It's true the world over/ we have to be told to smile"... As with all clever songwriters, the message and the medium can't always be of the same grade. A smart pun can get hung on the wrong hook. Personally I don't know how one chooses but what ever choices were made The AS gets it right on this middle track of their latest. A waterfall of keys and an understated driving beat places it firmly in Madchester-era dance pop. The observations are spot on and harmonize with emotions of the instruments. The next track, Than, is an elegiac string instrumental and provides a sublime coda.