Toronto-based indie rock outfit, Dinosaur Bones, have slowly but surely built up a strong fan base off of their debut album, My Divider, and with the arrival of their sophomore album, Shaky Dream, they look to expand themselves to an even wider audience. In the two years since the release of their debut album, the band has been maintaining a strong touring schedule and this effort definitely comes through in the new album. The confidence they’ve built up as a band have allowed them to take their style in a few new directions with their new album. All the while, the intensely literary, emotional, and personal lyrics of vocalist Ben Fox continue to shine through and are a focal point of the album.

With Shaky Dream, the band has made some major evolutions in their diversity of sound. The quintet’s familiar dark pop style is alive and well on the new album which showcases a morose yet beautiful element that allows Fox’s lyrics to be the centerpiece of nearly every track. Many tracks such as “Pacifist in Camouflage” and “So Brand New” are decidedly stripped down and nearly ambient in nature, which do an excellent job of bringing Fox’s lyrics to the forefront and allowing the full effect of their meaning hit the listener. Conversely, other tracks such as “Sleepsick” and “Don’t Decide” are decidedly more instrument driven and harken back to a more post rock influenced style seen on the bands first album. The real strength in this is that the band manages to create a very good flow between the two on the album so that the interchange from one to the other isn’t jarring on the listener in any way.

While Shaky Dream is an overall solid album, I feel like Dinosaur Bones is in a bit of a period in which they are still defining themselves and their sound as a band. It’s obvious that lyricism plays an important role to the band, the backdrop on which Fox chooses to project his verse is being developed by the band. The variety of style seen on Shaky Dream is most certainly a good thing. In fact, I believe that I enjoyed the more ambient tracks most of all off of the new album. However, they are somewhat sparse, as one would expect for a band trying something new. Established fans of Dinosaur Bones will no doubt love the new album as it certainly delivers on what they’re known for. The newly initiated listeners, such as myself, will certainly enjoy the album as well, but there will undoubtedly be those like myself who are enticed by the band’s more ambient geared tracks and will look forward to more in this vein in the future.

Peterson Worrell – August 13th, 2013

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