Profile: Handome Furs

Where: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Release: “Plague Park” (Sub Pop)
Web: handsomefurs.com
Go to Helsinki: The title of “Plague Park” is inspired by Ruttopuisto, a place in Finland which contains a park in which thousands of plague victims were buried in the 17th century. Today, it is a site of mass drunkenness on the first day of spring.

Every engaged couple must have their shared activities, whether it be jogging together, HBO original series fandom, or putting on dinner parties. Wolf Parade singer Dan Boeckner and fiancée Alexei Perry just happen to enjoy creating earnest, drum-machine powered new wave together. Not unlike fellow Wolf Parade chum Spencer Krug and his Sunset Rubdown projects, Boeckner and Perry make emotionally powerful and melodically ambitious indie pop symphonies from relatively understated sources. Though much of this album falls a bit on the dramatic, mainstream-averting artsy side, when the handclap beatboxing meets the upbeat chorus of “Cannot Get Started,” one gets the idea that this soon-to-be-married duo could hammer out a dance club hit if they really wanted to.