Volume 1

For a band as fond of songs about spies as The Besnard Lakes, it's apt that their first album almost remained a secret. Originally a 1,000 copy release in 2003, Volume 1 wasn't re-released until some four years later, during which time their Montreal neighbours Arcade Fire had gone on to take over vast tracts of the alternative music world. During those four years, the couple at the heart of the band, Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek, couldn't have been comparatively more covert.

That the Besnard Lakes deserved far more than obscurity is clear: it was the success of 2007's Polaris nominated "Are The Dark Horse" that led to Volume 1's re-release; last year's "Are The Roaring Night" wasn't just one of the best albums of 2010, but also had one of the best singles, too, in Albatross. A more beautifully disjointed and otherworldly sounding song is difficult to find at the best of times, let alone among the acres of tedious, po-faced indie drivel that constantly (dis)grace release schedules.

Although noticeably sparser than more recent albums, the band's template can't be mistaken on their debut. Melody lines and vocal lines loop together like rounds, fading or cutting in and out of each other, almost every song offering a different and wonderfully off-centre crescendo. Two of the songs - Skyscraper Girl and You've Got to Want to be a Star - clock in comfortably over nine minutes. Both of them are recognisable relatives of their later albums, starting slowly, quietly, and building through fluid drifts into a glorious hug of a sound.

For a band too easy to describe as ethereal, it's difficult to describe that sound - as distinct as it is - more concretely. Rather than sounding particularly like Pink Floyd, instead they evoke the same sense of space and drift that Floyd, at their space rock best, could. Similarly, rather than being Shoegaze, they craft a sound out of ebbs and swells that is as textured and dreamlike as that genre ever managed. There may be undeniable touches of prog, but it's the Beach Boys that underwrite their harmonies; underneath this is a bass at times as full, melodic and propulsive as The Pixies. But while saying that The Besnard Lakes are a band in touch with musical history may be true, if it implies that their sound is solely backward-looking then it does them a disservice.

This Thing uses a simple guitar pattern while picking up pace and depth so subtly that, by the end, you can't remember at which point you got swept up by it; For Spy turned Musician is lit up by a chorus that arrives like you've been humming it already, but that slinks in and out of guitar lines just as captivating. You've Got to Want to be a Star isn't simply long - it's superb. Languid and melancholy, the evolving and repeating organ line ties it together around a middle section as tunefully discordant as it is haunting. It's the music that should be played were you ever to drive through a backwater town at night, looking through the window at striplights blurred by raindrops.

Unsurprisingly for a debut, it's a sound that's been built upon and bettered by them since. This album hasn't the dynamic range of Roaring Night; compared to Dark Horse, the songs occasionally amble where they later soar, and there's nothing to compare with the glorious punch of Devastation. One area where it is undeniably superior, though, is the cover art, which for once won't make you self-conscious of being spotted with it in public.

For all that, Volume 1 is a joy to get lost in, and a wonderful secret to stumble across. Sometimes it's best to have your cover blown, after all.