Quit the City's best when loud and scrappy

Quit the City (Standstill)

It’s tempting to classify Quit the City as a ’90s throwback. But that only raises the question of what a guitar-bass-drums-vocals rock band is supposed to sound like in 2012, and whether the answer is any different than it was 15 or 20 years ago. Quit the City doesn’t really sound like any of the acts it counts as influences, but it does somehow evoke the heyday of Nirvana and the Pixies without leaning too heavily on distortion-strafed power chords or the loud-quiet-loud formula.

Led by a pair of Calgary transplants, singer-guitarists Ryley Campbell and Colin McDonald (joined by bassist Liam Worthington and drummer Dan Whittal), Quit the City is at its best when it sticks to more uptempo numbers. The MTV Unplugged–style acoustic numbers (“Frozen Scenes”, “You’re Not the Only One Who Feels Crazy”, “Ghosts Will Die”) don’t make much of an impression, but on melodic rockers like “Friends” and “From the Colours”, the quartet wins through sheer exuberance, sounding a little like a young and scrappy Sloan circa Peppermint. Well, without the sugar-coated hooks, but maybe those will come in time.