The “Semi-Precious Stone”/“Agents of Love” single finds our heroes where we left them on Expo 86: seething, yelping, sweating, and in the process finding two different ways to sing about the apocalypse. “Semi Precious Stone,” the Krug number, unfurls slowly across a landscape of creeping synths and ominous imagery. Cassandra’s hanging out, someone’s making a totem pole of diamonds, and the sky’s foaming at the mouth: typical day in Krug land. Boeckner, as usual, dispenses with metaphor and comes out the gate actually foaming at the mouth: his “Agents of Love” is easily as good as any track on Expo 86, barreling forth with a kind of throat-splitting velocity that makes “This Heart’s On Fire” sound like a couples skate. It’s a story told in pointed, percussive phrases each more anthematic than the last (“Kickin’ at the door!”; “They want your heart!”; “I’m your man! I’m your man!”). On the A-side, overtop a crescendo of portentous synths, Krug declares, “This is the sound that I choose to make now.” But “Agents of Love” condenses that expansive radioactivity into jolting, electric thrusts. This, Boeckner counters, is the sound of “fuckin’ off your halo.”
As always, taking the “Krug songs” vs. “Boeckner songs” approach overlooks Dante DeCaro’s supporting contributions and Arlen Thompson’s propellant drumming—both of which give these songs their muscle. Still, Wolf Parade’s all about the interplay between Krugish sprawl and Boecknerian urgency, and the band’s at their very best when they don’t hold fast to those roles too completely, when the chasm between them isn’t so wide. SinceApologies to the Queen Mary (2005), Krug and Boeckner’s talents have been developing in different directions. Expo 86 provided further proof, but it also concluded with evidence to the contrary; “Cave-o-sapien” sounds like all the warring impulses of Wolf Parade upended, crashing like furniture in an overturned truck. It’s sprawling; it’s urgent; and it’s buoyant enough that its Pips-like backing vocals actually seem sort of necessary. On “Semi Precious Stone” and “Agents of Love,” the division between each of these impulses is much more clearly defined, but thankfully the songs themselves are good enough to make the space between them a moot point.