Mar 05 2010 11:41 am,
The Besnard Lakes
‘The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night’
(Jagjaguwar)
Picking up exactly from where 2007’s ‘…Are The Dark Horse’ left off, Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes’ third album offers intense, swirling storms of songs, recalling at once their closest contemporaries, Band Of Horses, and The Beach Boys, whose legacy of intricate melody permeates ‘The Besnard Lakes Are…’. Insistent yet fragile, ‘…Are The Roaring Night’ scatters dense patterns of sound and emotion, sometimes dark and echoey, as on ‘Land Of Living Skies Pt.2’, at others uplifting and devastatingly beautiful, like ‘Chicago Train’ with its Elbow-esque instrumentation. The saccharine wonder-pop of Olga Goreas-led ‘Albatross’ is simply perfect, whilst the fuggy, thumping ‘And This Is What We Call Progress’ and kaleidoscopic psychedelia of ‘The Lonely Moan’ are equally brilliant. A fillerless, flawless record.
Sophie Thomsett
