The concept of warring band leaders has become so ingrained in musical folklore that it seems odd, even suspicious, when two men can be counted as equal creative forces in a band yet continue to get along. This is certainly true of Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug, the team behind Wolf Parade. In a year of huge releases by established indie darlings like Sufjan Stevens, Antony and The Johnsons and Bright Eyes and a new wave of Post-Punk revivalists like Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party, Wolf Parade was on the receiving end of the great hype machine for their debut Apologies to the Queen Mary.  That album is the perfect example of the kind of creative energy two very different minds can produce. Krug's weird, Bowie tinged keys combined with Boeckner's comparatively straightforward (yet powerful) guitar made for a chocolate-and-peanut-butter of music that still sounds fresh after 5 years on heavy rotation.

2008 saw the release of the underrated At Mount Zoomer, in which Krug and Boeckner's differing styles were even more pronounced. In 2009 they each found success with their other bands. For Boeckner, his second album with Handsome Furs entitled Face Control saw their critical status rise from 'interesting curio' to 'force to be reckoned with', while Krug's third Sunset Rubdown outing Dragonslayer made several best-of-the-year lists. Now they're back together for Expo 86, named for the World's Fair they attended as children.

The album begins with a sort of in media res ramble by Krug, almost as though the record begins with him halfway through a song by a different band, which given his sheer volume of work is not entirely impossible. "Cloud Shadow on the Mountain" sets the tone for what's to come with a loose and energetic feel. The most surprising thing about the album is its cohesion, somewhere between Zoomer and here Krug and Boeckner found a way to make their styles gel together to form a unified sound. Unfortunately, this is to the album's detriment. Interviews reveal that the recording was done relatively quickly and with a minimal amount of overdubs in order to better capture a 'live' feel, and while you can feel it in some of the fantastic solos it hurts the quality of the vocals, particularly Boeckner's. It's as though in order to found a unified sound they've been forced to remove the most extreme (and most exciting) parts of their playing. Expo 86 is filled with good ideas that never quite get there, all too often a riff will begin and then disappear without reaching the sort of payoff found on Queen Mary and Zoomer.

This is by no means to say that the album is bland, far from it. Krug tune "What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)"  is a downcast ballad that evokes the tension found in "Modern World", and Boeckner provides some top notch jams on the unfortunately titled "Pobody's Nerfect". The album leaves the best for last with "Yulia" the haunting tale of a dying cosmonaut, and "Cave-O-Sapien"  featuring Krug in full flight with the kind of manic collage of sound that at times nearly reaches the brilliance of  "Kissing The Beehive" (which is still the only Wolf Parade song credit to both Boeckner and Krug). Wolf Parade
 
will always suffer from high expectations, and for a hundred other indie bands Expo 86 would've been a perfectly serviceable rock record. We've heard Boeckner and Krug do astonishing things both separately and together, so it's disappointing that this album is merely very good rather than the brilliance we've come to expect from them.  Established fans will find a lot to enjoy here, but newcomers to the Boeckner/Krug pantheon should start elsewhere.

Review Score: 7.5/10