Valleys - Sometimes Water Kills People (2009)

Though they had been collaborating on music together for awhile, the Montreal-based duo Valleys made their debut with 2009's Sometimes Water Kills People on Semprini Records. Multi-instrumentalists Matilda Perks (keys, guitar, sequencer) & Marc St. Louis (guitar, keyboards, drums) both write and sing, crafting dreamily atmospheric electronic pop with guitars that's filled with melancholy emotion, but is also unfailingly melodic and sweet. They followed up the album with a couple of EPs (2010's Stoner and 2011's River Phoenix) as they played gigs and honed their sound. The duo signed with New York's Kanine Records and began working on an album with producer Alec Dippie from British post-punk group the Monochrome Set. Are You Just Going to Stand There and Talk Weird All Night? is filled with loss (for Perks it was the passing of family members, for St. Louis it was the ending of a relationship) and different ways of dealing with it (Perks' Shambhala Buddhist beliefs, St. Louis' maturation process). It was released in early 2013, as the band launched a North American tour.