5 out of 5

Label: Secretly Canadian

Produced by: LonPaul Ellrich

Piecemeal Elephant Six-stoked puffs of DIY rumble and psychedelia gave the youths of Impossible Shapes the maturity and confidence to drop the mirthful miasma of We Like It Wild, which, to me, was a revelation combining throwback sensibilities with a punkish edge.  This advanced further, and deeper, on Horus, a masterpiece of production, composition, and sequencing that shoves the feel good abandon of Wild down a deep, dark well.  The psychedelia is intact, but it’s tripping harder, Barth, Deer and crew playing their songs into the darkness, eyes closed, blissful smiles.

Look: I don’t quite know what Horus is about, but there’s an internal mythology that drives the thing from start to finish – talking of demon children, beasts and princesses, lighting candles to gods.  And in between the group gets their kicks fussing over feelings of both community and isolation, from the rebellious yelps and rip-snarling riffs of Demon Child to the layered mystery of Demon Love, building off of precise pluckings to an awesomely distorted haze.  Every vocal trill and note feels inspired bit intended; the sounds are warm and immediate, the songs stacked not only to tell their story, but to ebb and flow in intensity as with the best of stories.

We Like It Wild made me fall in love with Impossible Shapes; Horus made me go full Stockholm Syndrome.