Album Review: Harm's Way by Ducks Ltd.

For Harm's Way, Ducks Ltd.--the duo of Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis--met up with a bevy of Chicago's finest (Ratboys' Julia Steiner and Marcus Nuccio, Finom's Macie Stewart among many others) for a cross border recording session in the Windy City. But in spite of the dozen listed collaborators, the follow-up to the equally stunning Modern Fiction is as tight and uncluttered as they come. The added vocals and string arrangements form more of a base over which McGreevy's compositions, abetted by Lewis' guitar work, run rampant.

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Known for their no holds barred freneticism, Ducks Ltd. opts to take things a little slower when Hollowed Out opens their second LP with an ode to ennui. "All we ever do is sleep/Eat, fuck, and sleep," lead singer and guitarist Tom McGreevy sings with resigned acceptance, maintaining a calm demeanor against the emotional ebb and flow that keeps him from moving forward.

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Ba-da-dum. Ducks Ltd.'s second album kicks off in the kind of staggered power chord that has always conjured angsty bravado, echoing the Who, Guided by Voices, the Bats, and Teenage Fanclub. Like a hundred bands before them, the Toronto duo seeks equilibrium between sting and solace, hook and racket. The giddy melodies of "Hollowed Out" billow from tight, angular brackets of guitar, a rush, an assault and a daydream all at once.

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