December 11 — “Maybe Lately” by Miracle Fortress

Graham Van Pelt (Miracle Fortress)

If you only listen to one song tonight, make it “Maybe Lately” by Miracle Fortress (2007, from the album Five Roses).

Miracle Fortress is a Montréal-based indie rock recording project of multi-instrumentalist Graham Van Pelt. He’s released two albums and a couple of singles under the Miracle Fortress name. He also plays in the Montréal indie rock band Think About Life.

Although Miracle Fortress is ostensibly a solo project, when Van Pelt plays live shows, and even sometimes when he’s in the studio, he has a support cast. One of his support team is Jessie Stein from The Luyas.

The debut album, Five Roses, impressed a lot of people. It ended up on the short list for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize. Not too shabby for a debut record.

Here’s today’s song:
“Maybe Lately” by Miracle Fortress

I love that this is a combination of dream-pop and Beach Boys. The vocal “harmonies” are pretty stunning, and while that whole thing is going on, there’s some crazy stuff going on with the guitar part. The dense effects, the arpeggio. It’s kinda spacy. Combine that with the keyboards and you’re definitely getting a dreamy aspect. At the same time, though, the bass is kinda heavy and the drums are kind of big in the mix. Two different directions held together by the brilliant vocals.

Plus there’s this:

Maybe, maybe,
I’m in to spending every day
together just with you.

Lately, lately,
I’ve been thinking it could be forever
just us two.

Maybe when we’re older I’ll be less afraid.
Maybe when it gets colder you could come to stay.
If I’m with you.

It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

You can buy Five Roses directly from the Miracle Fortress web store here.