PureVolume

Mood Swings
In Stores September 25th

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Mood Swings

, the new album from Small Sins, starts with a bangliterally. If you give me the gun, well, I'll shoot myself in the foot are the first words on the album sung by Small Sins frontman/mastermind Thomas DArcy. He doesnt stop there. Nearly every song on Mood Swings ricochets with gun imagerya stunning contrast to the albums hypnotic tapestry of shimmering electronics, organic instrumentation, and DArcys ongoing quest for the most shameless pop hooks possible. It wasnt on purpose, DArcy explains, claiming that, other than a short stint in his university gun club, hes no firearms enthusiast. Its a good metaphor for what I was trying to say this time. A loaded weapon is something anxious: theres always the underlying potential to explode.

Dont be surprised, then, if Mood Swings, DArcys second album under the Small Sins moniker, blows up: hes aiming at newer, higher targets following the success of Small Sins self-titled 2006 Astralwerks debut. Small Sins proved a masterpiece of wistful chamber-pop, its hushed, electro-tinged narratives of love lost and found finding wide acclaim. Blender called it a lovely piece of campfire synth-pop, while Spin opined memorably, Imagine if Jack White had a crush on Kraftwerk. But after touring the US relentlessly with the likes of Scissor Sisters, The Kooks, The Little Ones, Sloan, and Radio 4, DArcys modus operandi for Small Sins began to change. For one, it started to resemble an actual rock band. Well, sort of, anyway

Originally, DArcy consciously conceived Small Sins as a self-contained solo unit. A veteran of the vital Toronto, Canada indie scene thats produced the varied likes of Arcade Fire, Feist, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Peaches, and Broken Social Scene, DArcy had played since 1996 in the Britpop-influenced Carnations, and was burnt out on the band dynamics pseudo-democracy. As a result, D'Arcy not only sang and played nearly every instrument on Small Sins debut, but also wrote, produced, and recorded it almost entirely on his own. However, when he put together a touring band with four exceptional musiciansSteve Krecklo (guitar, banjo, keyboards) Todor Kobakov (keyboards), Brent Follett (drums), and Kevin Hilliard (percussion, handclaps)Small Sins started to evolve anew. DArcy had been puzzled by Small Sins initial comparisons to the likes of Postal Service and Grandaddy. Once people started seeing the band live, however, critical assessments flew all over the place. Some heard Talking Heads, or the Buzzcocks, or Neil Youngindicating that Small Sins was coming into its own sound. DArcy himself thinks Small Sins revitalized sonics sound like Wilco meets Devo. That actually kind of makes sense, doesnt it?, he adds with a laugh.

DArcy found performing live actually transformed Mood Swings material, too. Hed already recorded a solo version of the new albums first single, On The Linea deceptively catchy tale of retribution with a massive singalong chorus. However, he felt it paled next to the driving live version, and re-recorded it with the full band on a day off following a Los Angeles tour stop. Even his vocals were changing as a result of the live show. The first records low, whispery stuff was hard to project, so I put everything up an octave to sing it live, he explains. Once I started singing more, I got more creative with the melodies I was coming up with. I really found my range, and it made the new songs so much more vivid.

Off the road, the touring ensemble found themselves occasionally writing together, making it inevitable that D'Arcy would involve the band members in the making of Mood Swings. Typically, the players rarely worked together at the same time. Instead, DArcy brought in individual members to add unique flavor to the songs, like Steve Krecklos haunting banjo plucking on the gorgeous ballad Morning Face, moving them between his basement, traditional studios, and other unexpected spaces (Toronto rapper K-OS, a friend of the band, even loaned DArcy his personal digital playground for a year). Mood Swings' experimental but collaborative approach extended even to the albums mix process, for which DArcy traveled to Chicago to work with legendary studio guru John McEntire (Tortoise, Stereolab, Sea and Cake, Mary Timony). John was greathe added so much, DArcy explains. I didnt expect any radical changes to the songs, but then he busted out all these weird synths! Id say, Im not so into this bass part; do whatever you want. Then Id leave for an hour, come back and itd be like, Holy fuck! That wouldnt have happened on the last record.

Indeed, Mood Swings proves even richer and more assured than what DArcy himself felt he was ever capable of. Like an electro-pop remix of a Coen Brothers movie, the album belies DArcys darkly humorous ruminations on longing and revenge with seductively cheery upbeats on tracks like On The Run and Drunk E-Mail. Its saying, Just because Im drunk, it doesnt mean I dont know what Im writing to you is true, D'Arcy explains of the latter. Each song provides a major stepping stone in DArcys mission to create the ideal pop artifact with Mood Swings: a cycle that works track-by-track for the iPod generation, but ultimately stands on its own. I made Mood Swings for those music fans who still actually listen to albumsit should be experienced as a whole, DArcy explains. At the same time, when I was kid, I mostly listened to oldies radio hits, like Elvis and Chubby Checker, so Im obsessed with the idea of the simple, perfect pop song. Thats the most important thing: whatever the instrumentation, I want everything to be quick, catchy, and always pop.