It’s next to impossible to keep track of what members belong to which band in the Montreal music scene. With some bands ballooning to a dozen members, it’s like a big orgy of musical inbreeding. Yet unlike Appalacia or the Royal Family, they’ve actually produced some good-looking progeny. Along with impressive releases from Set Fire To Flames, The Silver Mt. Zion and Broken Social Scene, Do Make Say Think have shown that Godspeed You! Black Emperor aren’t the only happening band in town. Already on their fourth album, Do Make Say Think have produced their best work yet. Divided into three movements per the title, Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn, there are some similarities with GY!BE, though they are less prone to bombastic crescendoes. Rather, the music ebbs and flows, evoking images and feelings rather than forging mountains out of lava. The subtleties rely on more detail and texture, which can be just as rewarding, with more varied creative use of instruments treated with effects, electronics and dub rhythms. Every “hymn” has its pleasant surprises, the most satisfying being the middle, presumably Country Hymn section, with the exquisitely somber beauty of “107 Reasons Why,” and the Henry Cow-like chamber-jazz of “Ontario Plates,” which ends up shattering into glorious, noisy shards at the end. “Horns Of A Rabbit” is the showiest track, and at 4:02, their most concise example of their talents, combining the melancholy beauty of horns, strings and backwards guitars with a rocking and crashing drums, showing that they can’t deny the passion and fury coursing through their bloodline.
April 2, 2026
Fester’s Lucky 13: 1986
February 27, 2026
Fester’s Lucky 13: 1976
