L’amour fou is a burning, all-consuming passion, a can’t-live-with-you-can’t-live-without-you affair better known for bruises and sweaty bodies than hand-holding and lingering twilight walks. Saskatchewan’s Amour Fou are all thundering business, combining the furious political discourse of Propagandhi with all the sophistication of a tire iron. While the titles might borrow a page from the Nation of Ulysses book of sloganeering, the songs themselves owe a debt to Cursive, though stripped down for a two-piece. Some of the instrumental numbers are rather bluesy, but all of this is mere foreplay to the band’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “The Future.” The duo transform Cohen’s cynical reflection on modern life into a snarling, incendiary indictment, whose hardcore thrash styling leaves the listener gasping for breath.
