Waver, the fourth proper LP from Canadian art-pop sextet
Royal Canoe, finds the band trying to whittle away a few layers from their quirky, genre-inclusive approach. Largely self-produced with some help from engineer
John Paul Peters, the ten-song set follows the Winnipeg band's breakout sophomore album, 2013's Juno-nominated
Today We're Believers, and its overly busy follow-up,
Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit, which came out in 2016 and was helmed by
Animal Collective producer
Ben Allen.
Royal Canoe's ambitious mashup of pop, hip-hop, soul, and math-inclined rock rides the fine line between wishing to entertain and challenge listeners, veering frequently to one side or the other and occasionally failing to achieve either task.
Waver, in spite of its attempts to streamline their sound, remains a mixed bag, dazzling with elegant sophistication on the lovely "May 17" while confounding with the soulless robo-funk of "Ashes, Ashes," a flacid rhythmic exercise whose only bright spot is an animated guest rap by
Nnamdi Ogbonnaya. A good deal more worth listening to ("RAYZ," "Peep This") occurs between those poles, but the wide gap in quality between those two tracks represents the band's biggest and most enduring challenge: consistency. This is a group with bright ideas, a ton of talent, and very strong musicianship, but their desire to chase every clever whim and bog themselves down with technical elements so often gets in the way of producing a solid album.