The Paint Movement’s self-titled debut is incredibly reminiscent of a Broken Social Scene record - throughout the album, I had to remind myself that I was not listening to the Brendan Canning-fronted ensemble. This Mississauga quintet employs a formula similar to Canning’s group: male and female vocals with alternating lead duties (that are often raspy or distorted), densely layered songs, and multi-instrumentation. Their tunes even seem to break down the same way as those of BSS, and then build up into the same great waves of sound. That’s not to say the album is bad - just very familiar. Where they separate themselves is with the frequent use of the saxophone. While The Paint Movement lists Animal Collective and Wilco as inspirations, they definitely sound more like the well-known, ever-changing Canadian collective. Fans of BSS will slip easily into this fledgling band, that appears to be skipping over the Prairies on their trip west in November.

Published in Volume 66, Number 8 of The Uniter (October 19, 2011)