The Besnard Lakes: …Are the Roaring Light
Montreal’s Besnard Lakes seek to continue their critical success. Their sophomore album, …Are the Dark Horse received critical acclaim from Pitchfork, Allmusic, and even Playboy. Their third full length studio album, …Are the Roaring Night contains the same trademarks: falsetto vocals, harmonies, and lulling psychedelic haze.
What’s sad is that regardless of what the band sounds like, with the type of harmonies they execute, they are automatically going to get compared to the Beach Boys. But their mixture of male and female vocals on …Are the Roaring Light actually reminds me more of the New Pornographers, except Besnard Lakes do not play with nearly as much energy. The Besnard Lakes’ is musically better equated with a slightly less lo-fi Best Coast.
Tracks like “Albatross” which feature female lead vocals could definitely be out of the Vivian Girls‘ catalog. While “Light Up the Night” showcases the type of fragility seen with the early music of Death Cab for Cutie but with more of a beach rock feel.
Although the album has a sunny, lazy feel to it, there is a backdrop of melancholy in all the songs. It’s a hard feeling to shake that this is not a “sad” album. But my biggest problem with the album is that it only contains ten tracks and two of them are interludes. The band tries to make up for it with four tracks over five minutes in length and two of those tracks are over seven minutes. The album does clock in at over 45 minutes, but it still feels a little short to me. Let that not be a deterrent, with majestic harmonies and solid song writing …Are the Roaring Light definitely lives up to the legacy that …Are the Dark Horse started.
Rating: 7.5/10
MP3: The Besnard Lakes “Albatross”
Buy: iTunes, Insound
The Besnard Lakes: …Are the Roaring Light
