''Sound Kapital'' is the third studio album by Canadian
indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...
Sub Pop Records
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* Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB
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on June 28, 2011. According to a press release, ''Sound Kapital'' is inspired by the
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
and industrial music of 1980s Eastern Europe and it is the first album that Dan Boeckner wrote entirely on keyboards, although most songs do include guitars.
The album was named as a shortlisted nominee for the
Arlen Thompson
Wolf Parade is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2003 in Montreal. The band released three full-length albums before taking a five-year hiatus in 2011. They announced their return in 2016, releasing a self-titled EP in May of that year, and a ...
at
Hotel2Tango
The Hotel2Tango (sometimes referred to as Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango and abbreviated H2T) is a 24-track analogue recording studio situated in the Mile End district of Montreal, Quebec. The current facility is the second to bear the name, and was pr ...
.
Release
On April 12, 2011, Handsome Furs announced they were releasing their third studio album ''Sound Kapital''.
Singles
The first single from ''Sound Kapital'' was "What About Us", and released on April 12, 2011, the same day as the album release announcement. Musician Diamond Rings remixed the track for his remix series ''Remix Rainbows''.
On May 20, 2011, the second track "Repatriated" was released.
Music videos
The music video for "What About Us" was released on July 8, 2011, and was directed by Scott Coffey.
Tour
In support of the album, Handsome Furs went on a tour of North American and Europe, starting on April 14, 2011 at The Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, and finished on May 22, 2011 at the Konsertforeningen Betong venue in Oslo, Norway. The duo announced more tours on May 20, 2011 for Canada and midwest United States, making appearances at
North by Northeast
North by Northeast (or NXNE) is an annual music and arts festival held each June in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival's main focus is live music, but it also includes an eSports gaming tournament, comedy, a conversations series, a flea mark ...
''Sound Kapital'' was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 75 based on 19 reviews. Aggregate website AnyDecentMusic? gave the release a 7.2 out of 10 based on a critical consensus of 12 reviews.
In a review for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
, critic reviewer Jason Lymangrover wrote: "''Sound Kapital'' was inspired by the last two years of traveling Asia. Aspects of J-pop and K-pop seem to have permeated their mindset, since, as an electronic duo, everything is light, peppy, straight-ahead, and modern-sounding, often to the point of sounding inhuman." At ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'', Steven Hyden explained: "''Sound Kapital'' consists mainly of catchy, mid-tempo rock songs where majestic guitar solos and atmospheric keyboard swishes swoop in from mid-'80s U2 and Tears For Fears records." Harley Brown of ''
Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
'' reviewed the album: "''Sound Kapital'' exemplifies form mirroring content and vice versa. The electro-industrial synthesizers and drum machines convey the Handsome Furs' lyrical convictions better than the band's earlier, less bombastic combinations of synths and guitar. Boeckner's tenuous voice sounds at home bouncing off Perry's grungy beats, and the two unleash their potential behind the keyboards." At '' Drowned in Sound'', Neil Ashman described the album as "a successful, if slightly creatively stifling refinement of a fruitful and unique musical partnership."
Writing for ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', writer Doree Shafrir wrote: "Boeckner and his wife Alexei Perry's danceable electronic-pop sound belies the album's often melancholy themes of love, self-discovery and rebirth. Sweaty and urgent, Sound Kapital is a snapshot of a dark world with hard-fought glimmers of euphoria."
Track listing
Personnel
Musicians
*
Dan Boeckner
Dan Boeckner (; born 5 February 1978) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist and podcaster. He is best known as one of the frontmen of Wolf Parade, which he helped found in 2003. Since 2013, he has also been a member of the Montreal-based ba ...
Arlen Thompson
Wolf Parade is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2003 in Montreal. The band released three full-length albums before taking a five-year hiatus in 2011. They announced their return in 2016, releasing a self-titled EP in May of that year, and a ...
– producer, engineer
*
Harris Newman
Harris Newman is a mastering engineer working out of Grey Market Mastering in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His studio shares a building with the Hotel2Tango recording studio, as well as Constellation Records. Newman has mastered hundreds of album ...
– mastering
* Antti Joas – mixing
* Jonas Verwijnen – mixing
Sub Pop Records
Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to
Places
* Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB
Computing and technology
* , an HTML tag for subscript
* SUB designate ...