More Than Any Other Day

Adjectives describing Montreal\'s Ought—such as “nervous,” “jittery,” and “art school”—likely also bring to mind a number of bands from the revered 1978-1985 postpunk landscape. Ought still maintain an outsider status, probably due to their lack (so far) of anything resembling a quirky, three-minute anti-pop song. This debut is exciting, taut, unpredictable, and imploding with an edgy energy that seems rare these days (at least when bombast isn’t part of the equation). Tracks like “The Weather Song” thrill the most when a rocky rhythm suddenly yields to a fast-moving montage of enthusiastic electric piano pounding, snare bashing, and singer Tim Beeler all duking it out. Or when slow, dripping tunes like “Habit” feature Beeler drowsily warning: “I feel/a habit/I feel a habit forming” for the last two minutes, wrought with reluctance and zero satisfaction with the situation. The opening track (“Pleasant Heart”) and the closer (“Gemini”) are ferocious and furious, the former roiling with the epitome of clanging, postpunk angular-ness and the latter building from a restrained aggressiveness to all-out rage over its nearly seven minutes.

Montreal-based art-punk band Ought’s debut is an endearing and electrifying album that treats panic attacks and adrenalized ecstasy as two sides of the same pounding heart. It’s an anxious, distressed record to be sure, but it presents itself as such simply to show you how that nervous energy can be put to constructive use.

Check out our album review of Artist's More Than Any Other Day on Rolling Stone.com.

There are plenty of moments on Montreal post-punk quartet Ought's debut album, More Than Any Other Day, that betray their immediate influences.

Album review: Ought - 'More Than Any Other Day'. "Amongst the most bracing sounds anyone can encounter in 2014…"

Review of More 'Than Any Other Day' By Ought. The bands forthcoming LP comes out of Montreal's Constellation records. Ought play April 23rd in Kingston, ON

Ought - More Than Any Other Day review: Ought perform a distinctly inspirational brand of post-punk on their standout debut.