The Most Serene Republic's ...And the Ever Expanding Universe

© Emma Ditchburn

The Most Serene Republic.

If it sounds big it’s because it is. The Most Serene Republic’s ...And the Ever Expanding Universe is one of the most energetic, bombastic, all-encompassing albums to come out this year. Or any year.

The Ontario, Canada-based septuplet has a big sound, and even bigger ideas. If you don’t understand those ideas, that’s OK. It’s the music that tells the stories of these songs. And the music is lovely, overwhelmingly cinematic, and razor-sharp.

The lyrics themselves are sometimes heavily philosophical, and other times sound as though they come out of free-association. And that’s when you can discern them at all. Most are quickly shouted, a la Los Campesinos. But the lyrics, and the vocals, which are wonderful male-female harmonies, are there merely to set the mood. And the mood is all about the sound.

And it sounds like the cure for what’s alining you.

If the thing that ails you is as small as noise pollution, or as large as an existential crisis, ...And the Ever Expanding Universe will be your salve. Listen as the music creates, and traverses, its own dream-like landscape; listen as the energy builds; listen as the vocals crescendo into lovely multi-part harmonies, and you’ll feel better by the time you get to the album’s textural mid-way point, the terrific, instrumental “Patternicity.” After which, you’ll be able to listen with a fresh mind and a light heart as the album pulls off one big idea after another.

The Most Serene Republic begins a small east coast (Canadian) tour Wednesday, November 25. If you’re on the coast (and in Canada!) check them out, because a sound this big should not be confined to mere mp3s.