The End of That

"vibrant, constantly rewarding"
– Spin

“The exuberance in the musicianship has never been more tangible.” ✰✰✰✰
– eMusic

“Cross-legged acoustic jams and staggering electric anthems … even at their most ornate, Plants and Animals have always been a power trio at core. They play with such vigor that they might as well be fronting an unheard orchestra.”
– FILTER

“With its sense of invention, dynamics that keep things interesting throughout and a refreshing knack for songcraft, The End of That is the most optimistic of new beginnings.”
– Montreal Gazette ✰✰✰✰½

The End of That sees Plants and Animals bridging the gap between their 2008 debut, Parc Avenue, and 2010’s darker La La Land.

The band took a different, more relaxed approach with The End of That as opposed to their former sprawling, in-the-studio songwriting process; they decided to write and fully develop a large volume of material before setting the tape rolling and clock running. But whereas they spent more time than ever before preparing, they actually recorded and mixed The End of That faster than any other Plants and Animals record to-date (save perhaps their 2007 breakthrough, the brief with/avec EP). With their new songs fleshed out, the band returned to La Frette Studios, outside of Paris, and with the help and ear of engineer Lionel Darenne (Feist), wrapped up their sessions in two weeks. The end result is arguably Plants and Animals’ most live-off-the floor offering.

That also makes The End of That their most intimate record. While there’s no shortage of their catchy electric guitar riffs, as evidenced on lead single “Lightshow,” the album also showcases lead singer Warren C. Spicer on piano, and plenty of acoustic guitar—an early touchstone of the band that had been given a break on the last record. Fans of Plants and Animals’ early acoustic work will feel right at home with songs like "Before," "Song for Love" and the title track, while lovers of the band’s multi-part excursions won’t be disappointed either; side A and B of the album end and begin with their own respective anthemic monsters in "Crisis!" and "2010."

Quick Before It Melts Review for The End of That

You know what else sounds sexier than malware? The new Plants and Animals album, The End of That.

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The Ontarion review for The End of That

As one might expect from any band’s third album, Montreal indie outfit Plants and Animals’ latest offering, The End of That, is of a more mature sound than its predecessors.

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Interview with Spill Magazine

Back on September 24, 2011, Plants and Animals played an intimate show in the live room at the Breakglass studio in Montreal. The show was part of the Pop Montreal festival, which the band first played at a few years ago when touring for the album Parc Avenue.

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Interview with Quartier Libre

Le son de ce troisième album est épuré, moins dense que les deux précédents. Il comporte encore un peu d’expérimentation sonore, mais également beaucoup de compositions acoustiques sans artifice.

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Interview with Parisian blog Pinkushion

The End of That pourrait finalement faire écho à une autre célèbre trilogie, celle western du maestro Sergio Leone, autre obsédé d’Americana. Après tout, il s’agit toujours de la même histoire, celle de l’homme confronté à une époque qui se termine.

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Voir review for The End of That

The End of That a un coeur, une âme et une poigne.

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Paste premieres Lightshow music video

To celebrate yesterday's release of The End of That, Paste is premiering the new official music video for Lightshow.

The video is a collaboration between producer Doug Karr and director Mitchell Hart who work on visual media together in New York. Hart explains the video as a commentary on contemporary media consumption: "There's so much information coming at us at any given moment ... as a result we're moving further away from appreciating the specifics of any given piece of media." Hart used the actual multi-track recordings to generate large data sets based on the audio files. Each track was analyzed through a series of code snippets and plugins to get what you see on screen. "A true combination of data visualization and cinematic production make this video unique."

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Nigthlife interview

Local indie rockers Plants and Animals take a new, candid approach for their latest album

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4 out of 5 stars on emusic!

The exuberance in the musicianship has never been more tangible, but the real benefit is Spicer’s more detailed lyrics, which accompany the band’s bark with a salty lick. You can hear it in the affable title track, which contains the punch line, “Like some fucked-up bumblebee/ Headed for the potpourri of the ladies room” and in marathoner “Crisis!” which laments the existential nightmare of too many strollers on the sidewalks. There goes any chance of landing that Kid’s Choice Award.

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Interview with The National Post

The End of That, the new album by Plants & Animals, brims with the kind of rock ’n’ roll character that’s usually seen as the byproduct of hard living and late-night gigs in dingy bars. It’s there in frontman Warren Spicer’s bourbon-and-ashtray vocals, in electric guitarist Nic Basque’s smoke-belching riffs, in drummer Matt Woodley’s swaggering grooves. But the members of the Montreal trio themselves point to an unlikelier source of inspiration: the study of avant-garde composition.

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