Austra's Feel It Break

The band Austra has been getting a lot of press lately, appearing on a bunch of Canadian 'best of' lists for 2011. They were also nominated for the Polaris Prize earlier this year.

I don't think this band really deserves all this glowing press. They're pretty good, don't get me wrong, but it's not original or fresh enough to warrant the gushing praise for a relatively new band that hasn't found its own distinctive voice quite yet.

I find at this point, they're taking a lot from Ladytron. I will certainly be following this band as they continue to make music, but I can't agree with what appears to be the popular opinion on this group. I'm sorry I missed out on their recent Toronto performance, cause I imagine them as a performance-first type of band.

From their new album, the track "Lose It" also seems to get the most chatter. I prefer "The Beat and the Pulse", as it's the defining track on the album and contains the lyric from which the album gets its title, Feel It Break. It also has a killer build to through the song to the chorus, and the track just sounds amazing.

Decide for yourself:

Also, I can't decide whether this video is unbelievably precious and pretentious, or just low budget:

I'm going to say a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B.