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- By date
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They'll change your life.
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They take their rough charm and run with it, continuing the giddy momentum they hinted at on [their self-titled] EP.
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Alternative PressAll at once tragic, gorgeous and ugly in just the right ways. [Nov 2005, p.212]
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A fine, quirky entrance that hints at a band poised for bigger things down the road.
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Each song is either a seismic death rattle or aftershock.
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A hugely impressive debut.
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Once all the influences roll off your tongue, however, you’ll find yourself speechless before the excitement this album will invariably instigate.
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There's nothing of substance lacking in the least compelling moments of Queen Mary, and the mix of rousing wildness and reckless wisdom in its brightest points is at once inspiring, promising, and terrifically entertaining.
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Entertainment WeeklyApologies is the stuff fanzine dreams are made of, and if it is very, very good without being spectacular, well, that's okay. [30 Sep 2005, p.95]
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FilterIf this record doesn't break in a major way, it will not only be a shock, it will be a damn shame. [#17, p.99]
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Their sturdy, inventive debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, draws further, fresh blood from the indie rock stone.
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Los Angeles TimesThe music reinforces Wolf Parade's edge-of-desperation outlook by refusing to offer the comfort of conventional pop music's reassuring repetition. Even if some choruses recur during a song, the music behind them is never the same as the last time around. [23 Oct 2005]
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Constantly winning and resurging, not a moment of Apologies to the Queen Mary is lost to the chaos.
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MagnetBy stepping around traditional rock instrumentation, the group is able to cover a lot of ground. [#69, p.112]
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MojoEngaging, inventive and emotionally charged. [Nov 2005, p.96]
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From the first few seconds of the album, you're hooked.
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New Musical Express (NME)Sounds as if it were recorded on one perfectly wasted afternoon. [22 Oct 2005, p.43]
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Wolf Parade is a great band, and while one will automatically think of Brock when they first hear You Are a Runner I Am My Father’s Son, (or any song featuring the first of the band’s two vocalists, Jason Krug,) many of the album’s strongest moments actually come when they more closely resemble other bands.
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Paste MagazineWhile Wolf Parade may be dark and spastic, its updates on indie formula... are undeniably impressive. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.140]
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On paper this all could sound average, but Wolf Parade's true talent is transforming the everyday into the unprecedented.
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What really distinguishes Apologies to the Queen Mary from just another ambitious rock album though, is the dynamic and accessible songwriting -- and the voices that propel those songs from the streets to the stratosphere.
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The Modest Mouse influence is apparent but in no way detrimental to Wolf Parade's sound.
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Q MagazineOne to watch. [Jan 2006, p.128]
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Apologies To The Queen Mary is often unfocused, but it's plenty lovable.
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Apologies to the Queen Mary gets by more on energy than chops.
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Apologies to the Queen Mary is almost an hour long, and there are certainly portions of it that aren't essential... but it's difficult to see where any fat could have been cut, as each track has its own fractured beauty.
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They’ve cleaned up their grungy guitar lines (thank you Sub Pop), reworked a few of the best songs from their early EPs, and the result is undoubtedly the best contender for the Arcade Fire/Broken Social Scene-helm of 2005.
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Apologies To The Queen Mary can be a little messy and unwieldy, but Wolf Parade's willingness to overreach charges songs like "We Built Another World" with real meaning, and palpable hope.
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Magnificent, all told.
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Wolf Parade do what they do better than anyone in recent memory.
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UncutFrequently appealing. [Nov 2005, p.103]
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Under The RadarCanucks, you've outdone yourselves again. [#11, p.113]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 150 out of 174
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Mixed: 20 out of 174
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Negative: 4 out of 174
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Nov 24, 2021
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Aug 16, 2015
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Dec 17, 2012