A decade can sound like a lot of things.
It can sound like a shuddering civilization dragged forward at an ever-increasing pace, of cell phones and social media, of new and improved haircuts and blue jeans, of reality TV and financial collapses.
It can sound like becoming and being content with becoming things, great grown-up things - More educated! Poly-professionals! Creators of little people! Condo-owners! Navally-inclined!
Yet still, that same unreasonable, incalculable and beautiful universe The Most Serene Republic opened the door to over a decade ago with 2005's Underwater Cinematographer remains - a phosphorescent glow to soundtrack the velocity of the wide-eyed, the lost, the found and the confused.
But we all know, to keep a universe from collapsing in on itself you need impossible things, impossible things you can analyze and pretend to understand. And when that fails and things stay impossible, turn these impossible things into constellations of stars for others to make sense of, while continually trying to keep the universe from collapsing.
For six friends - Ryan Lenssen, Adrian Jewett, Nick Greaves, Sean Woolven, Simon Lukasewich and Adam Balsam - this list of impossible things includes but isn't limited to: drowning the ears of North America, the United Kingdom and Europe with sonic wonderment through three full-length albums - the aforementioned Underwater Cinematographer (2005), the oh-so-dreamy Population (2007) and, of course, the kaleidoscopic ...And the Ever Expanding Universe (2009) - and the kid-brother Phages EP (2006), all on Arts & Crafts, plus the elbow-greasing Fantasick Impossibliss EP (2010) and the glimpse into how The Most Serene cosmos was birthed - Pre Serene: Thee Oneironauts (2011). All this while commencing on a near-constant touring schedule and making time to blow kisses to stage mates like The Strokes, Metric, Broken Social Scene and Stars.
It has been a half-decade since The Most Serene Republic has released new material. While merely a blip in terms of the universe, it can seem like a lifetime between when an elongated adolescence through the vehicle of artistry is left behind and adulthood is finally embraced. And so it is, that these six best of friends returned to making music through a very different lens, yet somehow managed to still capture all the impossibly beautiful things and the essence of what made their universe so special.
The ten songs on Mediac, recorded by the band over four years throughout Toronto, produced by TMSR's Ryan Lenssen and mixed by sonic architect David Newfeld (Broken Social Scene/Super Furry Animals/Los Campesinos!) will arrive in our Milky Way galaxy on November 13th via MapleMusic Recordings. And yes, yes... the good stuff is all there.
Themes include: Warm feelies! Bad things! Anxiety! Ontario! Prescriptions! Capitalism! The incessant and unbelievable weight of living, surrounded by your friends and sweeping melodies, plucked banjo strings, hiccupping violins, drums played by humans, drums spoken by machines but played by humans, bookshelves of guitar lines and bass-lines and keyboards (and god knows what else) punctuated by friendly vocals from friendly faces.
It's been a bit of a wait, sure, but The Most Serene Republic's universe didn't collapse, the door to said universe stayed wide open - inviting you, the person with ears, in.
