The Telepathic Butterflies: Breakfast In Suburbia

With the Beatles, the Kinks and the Who all referenced within the mod-ish pop beats of Winnipeg’s the Telepathic Butterflies, it was only a matter of time before the Canadians stepped up and delivered their own “concept” album. Enter stage left the Butterflies’ third long-player for Rainbow Quartz, Breakfast in Suburbia, a kaleidoscopic cogitation on life behind the lace curtain that mixes crunching power pop, jangly psychedelia and flourishes of Byrdsian folk-rock to excellent effect.

Rejean Ricard’s expressive rock vocals with occasional touches of echo, not to mention his uncanny knack of periodically sounding like Ray Davies (“Mr. Dysfunctionality”, “She Looks Good”), paint pictures of quiet distrust and regret where everyday folk hide guns in their closets (“A Scathing Report”) and dream of shrugging off the material ties that bind them to their semi-suburban homes (“The Trouble in Keeping Up with the Joneses”, “A Midlife Crisis”), while sugar-coated melodies and brash pop beats provide a gloss of normalcy. This is literate power pop of the highest order — just what you’d expect from a band who got their name from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Breakfast of Champions.