#272 (of 365) "Yulia" Wolf Parade

This is the first song on the countdown from Wolf Parade, one of if not the most influential bands in the my history of music. When Wolf Parade came out with their first album - Apologies to the Queen Mary - in 2005, they were compared to fellow Montreal musicians Arcade Fire, who had just made it huge with their 2004 debut, and as such they drafted off that fame for a bit, but obviously, they were pretty great in their own right, much better in fact, and the album ended up as my 2nd favorite album of the year. In 2006, band members Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner each released an album for a side project band, and Spencer's Sunset Rubdown debut was the #2 album of that year, while Dan's Handsome Furs debut was top 10. In addition, Spencer joined up with Destroyer's Dan Bear and Frog Eyes' Carey Mercer for a Canadian indie superstar album Beast Moans under the moniker of Swan Lake, which produced a top 10 single of the year. Then in 2007, Sunset Rubdown's second album became my favorite of the year, and in 2008, after four "side project" albums in 3 years, the insanely prolific Wolf Parade came out with At Mount Zoomer, their second album, and it also stormed to #1 on my album chart. 2009 saw Sunset Rubdown's 3rd album also reach #1, Handsome Furs second album get released, along with Swan Lake's second. Then, finally, in 2010, Wolf Parade's third album, Expo 86, reached #1 again. From 2005 to 2010, Spencer and Dan released 10 total albums among them, including 3 #1s and 2 #2s and dominated my musical love in a way no other artist has before or since. 

Then it all ended. Spencer ended Sunset Rubdown for unclear reasons. Dan and his wife -- the two halves of Handsome Furs -- broke up and the band ended. Swan Lake never made another record. And in 2011 or 2012, Wolf Parade announced that they were done. They got back together in the late 2010s and have since released a couple solid albums and played some incredible shows but nothing would ever reach those early heights. Nothing any band ever made could do that.

"Yulia" is a Dan-written and sung track from their final album of that early period, Expo 86, from 2010, the lone song from that album to make this chart, and since none of the newer tracks from their reunion reached these heights, it is in fact the "newest" Wolf Parade song here, even as it's 15 years old. But man, were they fucking great for a while.

"Yulia" - Wolf Parade // Expo 86 (2010)