The Montreal based band, The Besnard Lakes, has a habit of recording out in nature (can you guess their favorite spot?). Their music reflects the tranquility and complexity you’ll find out in the wild. The band intricately weaves together layers upon layers of texture and wrap it up into one nice track. Their latest album, A Coliseum Complex Museum, follows suit and continues to build on their style with eight fantastic songs.
Ethereal and surreal, The Besnard Lakes’ A Coliseum Complex Museum, is a piercing and beautiful experience. Each song has a special level of attention and detail. Every track a certain atmosphere, a bit of variety and stylistic expression. It’s something a bit awe-inspiring but often daunting.
The album begins with, “The Bray Road Beast.” Dreamy guitar lines and glitch synths wrapped around a serenading vocal line carry the track onward. It’s a haunting experience and then the band builds in energy. At the songs high point, the burst of energy, there’s something overwhelming. All the buildup leads to a ‘breathtaking’ sort of experience, a certain ambience. A later track, “The Plain Moon,” exemplifies the band’s flexible and fantastic style. The song is much funkier and features a thumping bass line alongside some powerful vocals and distorted guitars. Every song makes for quite the listen and A Coliseum Complex Museum makes for quite the listen.
On the flip side, the album comes off maybe too strongly. The majority of songs reach for five minutes if not longer, and often the slow, almost ambient, droney style of the band becomes a bit hard to digest. Getting through the album becomes a daunting task and while the songs are beautifully written, they have little replay value. There’s nothing groundbreaking, and it gets old fast.
The Besnard Lakes’ A Coliseum Complex Museum isn’t a terrible album. It’s a fantastic listen –it just lacks any long term enjoyment. Regardless, there’s no doubt that the band carefully wove together several instrumental voices into a plethora of complex and emotional tracks.
If you’re in search of your latest indie rock jams, complete with a warmer droney atmosphere and complex texture work, then A Coliseum Complex Museum is more than certainly for you. The album features a slew of enjoyable and intricate songs. From start to finish you’ll be captivated with the band’s talent.
Rating: 7.5/10
