Constantines are a tight five piece indie rock band, they formed in Guelph, ON, Canada in ‘99, and now call Toronto home. They have quietly and steadily put out albums since the turn of the millennium, for a brief two album period they were signed to no less a label than Sub Pop, but have now found a berth in local giants Arts & Crafts’ roster for album number four, Kensington Heights. What we get is a heads-down plough-through mentality that is belied by a reaching gaze and moments of introspection.

Their dense weave of instrumentation can often be indifferent to melody, this seems to stem from the communal equality in the way the songs come across, no one instrument gets highlighted more than the others. This has a thrilling effect with songs such as ‘Trans Canada’, an unstoppable locomotive powering it’s way over wide spaces, an entity made up of various parts that chug along in unison. Elsewhere, bruised and worn down feelings are given release through cathartic anthems, ‘Time Can Be Overcome’ showcases the band’s new-found slow burning attitude, over five minutes in length, it takes it’s time to build and boil over, a semi-religious proclamation of the title is a promise of hope and change. ‘I Will Not Sing A Hateful Song’ is thwanging guitar feedback and surprisingly intricate touches of keyboard and percussion, and the chorus an excoriation of the old ways of feeling and dealing with things. Growing up seems to be the closest the album comes to a theme, it appears yet again in ‘Our Age’, which has cascading high-neck guitar flicks, churning riffs and martial pounding and splashing on the drum kit, as Bry Webb sings lines like "Wonder on at our age". It must be pointed out just how convincing Webb sounds, a shaman with fire in his eyes, rasping out abstracted lyrics, bringing deft focus.

The more up-tempo aspect of their previous work still lingers about, ‘Credit River’ has a nice groove, and calls up the spectre of 60s garage rock. ‘Shower Of Stones’ is a chest beating rush, a secondary vocalist, possibly Steve Lambke, sings lead here, and sounds a little like Bob Dylan. But for the most part the band explore a sort of mid-tempo churn. The beginning of the album feels uneven, ‘Hard Feelings’ is a pretty ordinary track all-round and suffers when in comparison to ‘Million Star Hotel’ which is heavier and feels like it should be near the end of the album. At the back of the album ‘Life Or Death’ fits in with the winding-down feel of the tracks surrounding it, but doesn’t have the charm or hook of ‘New King’ or ‘Do What You Can Do’, and so the track feels stodgy and off-putting.

A drunken scream-along and some quiet reflection are both equally viable when listening to Kensington Heights, simmering frustration and the ability to move beyond it are offered, and all the while the band come across as if their heads are down and they are just ploughing through. 83%

Links The Constantines [official site] [myspace]