The joy of an album is its ability to deliver a linear experience – a story that starts deliberately and continues with a journey in mind.

By Graeme Smith

Let’s Trip’s second album, Boundary Passage: A Way Home, is a shining example of this. Its emotional tale is one of leaving, searching, and returning home, yet there is so much more to it.

The Canadian band first hit our radar in 2024 through the release of their debut album, Qualicum. The album impressed me through its genre-hopping style and ability to take me on a journey.

Their sophomore effort certainly continues that trend but shifts the focus to live instrumentation over experimental pop. Recorded in isolated over six days on Pender Island, British Colombia, this was perhaps out of necessity as well as being a stylistic choice.

The result is a rough, raw, real record that eschews the polish of overproduction. Boundary Passage feels authentic and lived-in, running a gamut of emotions and styles. While The End Pt. III introduces things with brooding alternative post-rock, Let’s Trip aren’t afraid to play fast and loose with genre, giving us variety throughout.

There are groovy and bluesy moments like Travelling Man, and ‘60s style freak outs like Carly’s Song. Early in the album you’d be forgiven for thinking that Let’s Trip have made a niche for themselves sittings somewhere between the anarchy of Lou Reed and the ‘90s rock sensibilities of Train yet that’s not all there is to them.

A surprise deviation into hip hop in My Favourite Song gives us something entirely different while a raucous cover of Somewhere Over The Rainbow ends things unexpectedly.

Add to this elements of spoken word, poetry, and imagery, and you’re left pleasantly disorientated. What’s for certain, by the end of Boundary Passage, you know you’ve been through something. It’s the kind of album that sticks with you.

Hailing from Victoria, Let’s Trip are the duo of tiko raspy and Jacob Krizmer who have become known for their unexpected style. While their first album leaned into experimental, synth-laden pop, Boundary Passage shows a different side of them and proves to be yet more evidence of why the band continues to catch my ear.

If you want to keep up to date with all Let’s Trip are doing, you can by following tiko and Jacob on Instagram.

Boundary Passage: A Way Home is out now, and you can listen to it below.