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Review
Long-time stars of the Canadian indie-rock firmament, at The Besnard Lakes’ core is husband-and-wife duo Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek, creators of 2007’s …Are The Dark Horse album, an alternately intimate and grandiose set which clocked in at a svelte 45 minutes. With …Are the Roaring Night they delve deeper into the glittering soundscapes that have become synonymous with their sound; sacrificing something of the warmth that marked their previous work, they nonetheless emerge with a thoroughly impressive, coherent whole.
Opening in two parts with Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent, the ease and confidence on display is remarkable. Lacek’s falsetto spirals and dives over a tense, static fuzz which finally breaks into bracing power chords a few minutes in, heralding the arrival of Goreas’s echoing, husky vocals – the perfect foil to Lacek’s sharp, distinctive style.
It’s a sense of the elemental The Besnard Lakes aim for on …Are the Roaring Night, and for the most part they nail it. The mood is almost overwhelmingly sedate at times, but caterwauling highs bubble under throughout – peaks such as those found on Albatross may seem rare, but they’re all the more effective for it, delivered with the kind of gusto that peers such as Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene revel in.
The vision they present the listener is admittedly a dark one, perhaps best epitomised by its centrepiece: in Land of Living Skies, Goreas takes the spotlight with a tale of losing oneself to the vagaries of nature, swelling oceans and rugged landscapes forming the backdrop to – and manifestation of – deeply personal quandaries.
As it draws to a close, Light Up the Night constitutes the record’s most outright beautiful moment, washes of strings and piano surging towards a serene climax that does much to allay all the fear and confusion preceding, only for final track The Lonely Moan to recede in ghostly, suggestive whispers, indicating that for The Besnard Lakes, things aren’t that clear-cut after all. --James Skinner
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Besnard Lakes - The dark horses come up roaring on the rails,
By
This review is from: The Besnard Lakes Are The Roar (Audio CD)
4.5 starsThere are some bands who record albums so classic you sit back and wait for the thunderous applause to follow and then .... nothing. The Secret Machines stunning album "Ten Silver Drops" is a case in point and as such it reminds me of this brilliant new album by Montreal's The Besnard Lakes. Both bands specialise in what Mike Scott once called the "big music" and indeed the cannons, fire and red sky on the album cover are more than a pointer for what follows in this album. Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek are the husband and wife core of the Besnard Lakes and they produce vivid atmospheric rock, heavy on reverb but also with a real lightness of touch. Just check out the brilliant single "Albatross" with Goreas gorgeous vocal combined with a huge droning guitar backdrop. You melt when she sings "oh you showed me so much" and the heady days of Kevin Shields earth shattering work on "Sometimes" flood into your brain. A truly great song. Their previous album the Besnard Lakes are Dark Horse contained fabulous shoegazer epics not least of all the showstoppers that are "Disaster" and "Devastation" which Gannon highlights in his excellent review. "Roaring" is more accessible than its predecessor and indeed seems to draw its underpinnings from further afield. Amazon is spot on in its detection of huge amounts of inspiration from fellow Canadian Neil Young on the epic seven minute plus anthem "Like the innocent, like the ocean part II". It builds and builds throughout into a soaring construct of guitar and wonderful harmonies, and when it concludes you press repeat. Perhaps the most in your face rocker however is the "Glass Printer" which is far more surly than anything else on the album and not a particular favourite. The pace is slower on the gentle "Chicago Train" but much better for it. This song is a key highlight with the band showing off their near perfect Beach Boy style harmonies over a slow synth until around mid way the song lurches up a gear into a a building crescendo of reverb and swirling vocals. "And this is what we call progress" is alternatively a more straightforward pop song but none the worse for it with it thumping drums and almost surf like guitar. My particular favourite is "The land of Living Skies part 2" when the great elements of this band come together to form and awe-inspiring whole which is also surprisingly deft and accessible. There are a couple of missteps on here but they don't amount to much. What will be interesting is whether Roaring Night sees them emerge from under the huge shadows cast by their Montreal contemporaries the Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene into the mainstream with magnificent third album of intense power and beauty. Is this then another classic destined for the "great lost album" pages of music mags? The answer of course is entirely up to you.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A modern rock classic,
By Big Twink (Swansea, Wales) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Besnard Lakes Are The Roar (Audio CD)
It is strange how all the best and most interesting current rock bands are from across the Atlantic, considering the UK's musical legacy to the world.After a three-year break, this Lp is the follow-up to '...are the dark horse', and for my money it's the best left-field rock Lp I've heard in quite a while. More groove-based and immediate than 'dark horse', there really isn't a bad track on here. If you like your rock music to be intelligent, with a touch of My Bloody Valentine and Beach Boys thrown in for good measure, you could do worse than start here. Early contender for album of the year.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
... Are Becoming Ones To Watch (7/10),
By
This review is from: The Besnard Lakes Are The Roar (Audio CD)
When the dust finally settled in Montreal after two straight years of its scene exploding, few bands were left truly unscathed away from the hype machine's glare. As with any scene there were true trailblazers, similarly also-rans, and the least said about the never-should-have-turned-ups the better. Happily, The Besnard Lakes found themselves resolutely in the former category. The epic and lightly psychedelic alt-rock found on 2007's ... Are The Dark Horse opulently swung from Grandaddy-gone-beefy hunting grounds to slow-rolling, Black Mountain-like jams.In their current and third incarnation as ... The Roaring Night, The Besnard Lakes remain an if-it-ain't-broke collective led by the husband-and-wife efforts of Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek. Recorded at Lasek's own Breakglass Studios with a vintage, 1968 Neve germanium mixing console (as used to record portions of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti), this latest album immediately inhabits a nostalgic, timeless space. The second part of "Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent" opens with an pure, atmospheric vocal that bobs prettily atop the widescreen and controlled psych-rock. Guitar drones duly ebb and flow, and heavier riffs foam sporadically throughout its luxurious seven minutes. The first part of the same track is merely instrumental scene setting and together they could have sat perfectly unnoticed on the preceding album. The ethereal beauty of "Chicago Train" is difficult to pin down, achingly forlorn, but greatly powerful as a late key change deviates it into more comfortably rocking waters. The lead single "Albatross" encroaches on shoegazing territory. Full of washing "oohs" and fuzzy guitars, it splits the difference between Mazzy Star's dream-pop and The Cocteau Twins' diaphanous sway. The toe-tapping stomp of "Light Up The Night" offers a strong close again in line with early Black Mountain work. Whilst the odd drawn-out extension may feel aimless rather than epic, the odd lyric laboured, and while there may be no moments to rival the majestic power of ... The Dark Horse's "Devastation", ... Are The Roaring Night is nevertheless a solid riposte to the weight of expectation that it brought.
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