The sophomore album by Newfoundland’s Novaks, three years in the
making, was recorded at Halifax’s Sonic Temple. There’s a whiff of
Toronto fussiness, wherein guitars can lose their quirks and get
treated like another drum kit. Nevertheless, this ranks, along with the
band’s debut, among great Atlantic Canadian rock records. “Destroyer,”
an engrossing live opener for two years, shows up on disc only slightly
defanged. When ex-Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan sits in on “Under Those
Wheels,” a kinship radiates with 1971 bellbottom swagger. By the end,
hooks flow so forcefully that any quibble over missing quaver floats away.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2009.