REVIEW: We Are Wolves - NADA (Simone Records)

We Are Wolves - NADA (Simone Records)

After over twenty years as torch bearers in the Montréal music scene, We Are Wolves return with their last album, NADA. We Are Wolves emerged as a by-product of art school bonding sessions between Alex Ortiz and Vincent Levesque. Taking a Pylon-esque art project approach to crafting their sounds, with little to no experience guiding them, creativity reigned. We are Wolves tapped into the ether with no preconceived notions and harnessed their own sound.

Since then, We Are Wolves have released a stellar catalog of music including several albums, EP’s and singles, now resulting with swansong album NADA. The album is a high watermark send off that very few bands get the chance to end on. Although fans of the band are no doubt a little bummed, NADA is a final gift worth unpacking.

At first listen, I couldn’t help but feel the album was released out of time. The summer meets post-apocaliptic dance party vibes would have been a gnarly soundtrack to this past summer, while in fact, Alex and Vincent were still busy recording in Mexico and NY, while we were digesting the first single Super Normal back in July.

The album’s kicks off with the triple threat of Transition, Attention and Man In The Military. They are a reminder that NADA‘s party is taking place in times of paranoia and confusion. Attention rings out like an alternate universe fire alarm, a warning you can thrash to, Man In The Military warbles in like a lost transmission, the message: war is confusion but you can DANCE. At just over two minutes, Man In The Military ticks all the modern art pop/ post punk boxes. The segue into instrumental Cumbia de el que no sabe, is an essential companion to its predecessor. In one move these songs connect the two opposite systems at work throughout NADA. Like chrome being buried in the dirt. In spirit, this combination is not dissimilar to The Liminanas fusion of garage and post punk with Laurent Garnier’s ballaric electronics on the band’s excellent 2021 collaboration De Peculia, For Nada however, this warm / cold confluence might conjur parties in the back alleys of Mexico City rather than the beaches of Ibiza.

First single and album closer Super Normal is a dance-inducing send off that’s impossible to separate yourself from. You eventually leave the party, but the party continues to follow you along, as you walk , as you eat. It plays over in your sleep. you can smell it on your shirt. Alex Ortiz’ spanish language delivery oversees the proceedings, while the track bounces infectiously its way into the brain, South American flutes pipe into your subconcious, where it will remain indefinitely. The song is an elevated ear worm. This one squats in the hippocampus.

The third point in the album’s trifecta of sound is dipped in pure pop. I Draw Ribbons apparently manifested itself after a rather dark day of recording in Mexico. The band were suggested to lighten up the mood and urged to jam something happy by their producer... and they answered with perhaps the band’s most radio friendly hit in their catalog. The child-like enthusiasm embedded into the track plays out like MGMT meets BLUR. The bassline and the Happy Mondays piano will cast away any incoming stormy weather on your horizon, and make any OG brit-pop fan dig deep into their baggy trousers..

Listening to We Are Wolves in 2024 connects a lot of the dots to what’s going on locally in Montréal.

If NADA is indeed the last album from Montrtéal’s We Are Wolves, it’s an ending befitting a band that started out between two friends who just simply wanted to create with agency and have fun doing it.

You can buy the vinyl from Simone Records HERE: SIMONE RECORDS