courtesy of Sub Pop Records

Other articles by Kevin W. Smith:

DJ-centered Dub Crawl puts new spin on festsTons of local bands to playEpic disagreement leads to unique solutionTucson's Fall Club Crawl this weekend Duo from 'Once' playing at Rialto tonight Okkervil River to flow at Club Congress Rebel rocker Michael Franti encourages voting Atmosphere and Pennywise lead KFMA's Fall Ball lineup Calexico, with excellent new CD, to play Rialto benefit Saturday Wow: Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend on same bill

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Wolf Parade is to indie rock what Outkast is to hip-hop.

The band is endlessly inventive in its scatterbrained melodies and led by a two-headed creative beast: singer/songwriters Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner.

Krug is the out-there, WTF sonic-alien, like Andre 3000, and Boeckner is the more traditional, straightforward dude, like Big Boi.

Together, both pairs balance each other in ways you don't fully appreciate until you listen to their solo efforts.

Outkast was still pretty much under the radar for its first few albums, and Montreal's Wolf Parade has quietly been one of this decade's better contributions to rock music.

In June, Wolf Parade released its second album, "At Mount Zoomer." The title is a reference to a Montreal space where the album was partly recorded. Its packaging looks like a bad LSD trip, but luckily the music is a better journey.

"At Mount Zoomer" follows Wolf Parade's ridiculously good 2005 debut, "Apologies to the Queen Mary," an instant classic produced by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock.

No matter who you are, it's nearly impossible to match expectations after something like "Apologies," an out-of-nowhere collection in which almost every song felt like an anthem.

So it's really no surprise that "Zoomer" comes off a little lackluster, even if it really isn't. The band has said the second album almost didn't even happen, and some Wolf Parade is better than none.

Instead of bringing back Brock or some other high-profile name to oversee production of "Zoomer," the band did it themselves.

In terms of building its audience, it seems like the self-production route was a mistake. Everything on "Apologies" sounded bigger, the instruments crisper and the voices more pronounced.

In comparison, "Zoomer" is more low-key, although it feels more fluid than "Apologies" and reveals more audible distinction in the songs helmed by Krug and Boeckner.

On "Apologies," Krug really owned many of the signature songs, from the bombastic stomp of "You Are a Runner" to the rabid-eyed soaring of "I'll Believe in Anything."

"Apologies" also introduced Krug's freewheeling, bug-eyed yelping voice, which sounded so out there it almost overshadowed Boeckner's more subdued Beck-like croon.

Some of Krug's songs on "Zoomer," like "Bang Your Drum," sound a little more like sisters of his side project, Sunset Rubdown (the six-minute opus, "California Dreamer," is an exception), which isn't a bad thing.

Boeckner, meanwhile, has stepped his game up for this album, delivering some of the more memorable songs, starting with the swing of opener "Soldier's Grin," the frustrated fire of "Language City" and the escapism of "The Grey Estates."

There's less swagger on "Zoomer," but the gems are still there and should fit in nicely with the old songs Monday at the Rialto.