by David Wilikofsky
Evan Lewis and Tom McGreevy initially met in their hometown of Toronto. At the time both played in local bands and were in the process of applying for permanent Canadian residence; they bonded over these shared experiences as well as their love of eighties indie pop, and Ducks Ltd (originally called Ducks Unlimited) was formed soon after. After playing together for the past few years, the duo is finally about to unleash their debut album, Modern Fiction. It is a jangle pop gem, a set of ten impeccably crafted songs worthy of the bands that inspired it.
From its opening moments, Modern Fiction is an album that wears its influences on its sleeve. The duo cites bands like The Clean, The Chills, The Go-Betweens and The Bats as sources of inspiration, placing them in a long lineage of jangle pop groups from these progenitors to contemporaries like Possible Humans or Dick Diver. While the sounds of Modern Fiction are instantly familiar and comforting, their chipper veneer masks a deep undercurrent of disaffection and pessimism that runs through the album. Its most powerful moments emerge from this dichotomy, an emotional gut punch that hits harder because of the buoyant melodies surrounding it. “Old Times,” a song that grapples with how we sometimes look at the past through rose tinted glasses, questions whether our friends are real or just people we happen to find ourselves around. The mixture of sadness and relief expressed in “‘Twere Ever Thus”, a meditation on the end of an abusive relationship, will feel familiar to anyone who has been through the same experience. “Always There” speaks to how time continues to trudge on, whether we “don’t leave the house for days” or not.
Ducks Ltd aren’t doing anything revolutionary here, but they don’t have to. Their vision is razor sharp, and the pleasures of their music are plentiful: sparkling melodies, earworm hooks, acerbic lyrics. They are able to perfectly execute this simple formula time and time again, giving us a set of immaculate pop songs. Modern Fiction is the rare album that is the equal of its influences, one that you can happily sandwich between your Go-Betweens and The Clean reissues.