SOUND BITES

  To say that much has changed in the last twenty years is probably one of the grossest understatements one could possibly make; this is true in basically every sense for all of us, on levels both global and personal. It's most definitely true for Our Lady Peace, who was for all intents and purposes a completely different band in 2000 when they released (potential hot take incoming) their last great record. Between the release of Spiritual Machines and its newly released sequel album, Our Lady Peace have turned over every band member aside from singer Raine Maida and bassist Duncan Coutts. Their music has also had its share of makeovers and detours since, and Spiritual Machines II is their biggest departure by far. Incorporating synths, keyboards and danceable grooves is old hat for rock bands by this point, and Our Lady Peace has dabbled in pop in the past, but Spiritual Machines II finds them burning everything to the ground and attempting to rise from the ashes covered in glit...

Try as they might to prove themselves as the same vital force of Canadian rock that they once were (they embarked on a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate Clumsy , their most enduring and popular record, last year), the Our Lady Peace of 2018 is pretty far removed from the one that dominated airwaves on both sides of the 49th parallel a couple of decades ago. Raine Maida remains the unmistakable voice and soul of this band, that much is unchanged; none of his original band mates, however, have made it to the ninth OLP album. Original guitarist Mike Turner's departure over fifteen years ago still marks a stark turning point (no pun intended) in the band's trajectory, as they would soon take their sound in a less heavy, more melodic direction. The four albums that followed Turner's departure saw diminishing returns, with 2012's Curve struggling to register much traction even on home soil. Then, in 2014, founding drummer Jeremy Taggart left the fold, leaving fans more tha...

This article may require just a bit of imagination if you're of a certain age, as it calls back to a time when the musical climate for Canadian musicians was in a much different state than it is today. Of course, thanks to the Arcade Fire-led charge, Montreal is seen as a spawning pool for globally adored indie rock; combined with the worldwide success of non-rock acts like Drake and Justin Bieber, no one bats an eye anymore when a Canadian musician conquers territory outside their homeland. Regardless, imagine a time when unless your band was really lucky, chances were you'd only ever find success as a Canadian in Canada. Sure, there were a few artists flirting with American audiences by 1994; Crash Test Dummies had actually scored a couple of pretty substantial hits stateside, and a couple other bands had the good fortune of having one of their albums released in the U.S. only to never get another crack at it when sales didn't rival the success of their American peer...