ARTiST: The Besnard Lakes
TiTLE: The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
LABEL: Jagjaguwar
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 45:25 min
SiZE: 63,1 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Feb-06-2007
RELEASE DATE: Feb-20-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Disaster 05:42
02. For Agent 13 05:12
03. And You Lied To Me 07:21
04. Devastation 05:50
05. Because Tonight 07:12
06. Rides The Rails 04:56
07. On Bedford And Grand 05:06
08. Cedric's War 04:06
Release Notes:
Rich with Beach Boys style harmonies, Roy Orbison
reverbs and orchestra, Pink Floyd's pacing and
Freddy Mercury's falsetto, The Besnard Lakes Are The
Dark Horse is a luxurious foray into sound and
music. This is the second record by The Besnard
Lakes, Montrealers by way of Western Canada. Their
independently released previous record, Volume I,
came out in 2004, and it was noticed by critics but
was largely overlooked by the public at large. On
both records, The Besnard Lakes have shown that they
are masters of finely-honed experimental pop songs
that invoke the eerie Lynchian setting as aided and
abetted by the music of Julee Cruise. But, on The
Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, the band throws
into the mix a mad dash of Fleetwood Mac
proportioned swagger and ambition. Not so
incidentally, the Besnard Lakes have created a
masterpiece that will resonate within all quarters,
amongst critics, casual and not-so-casual rock
listeners, garden variety pop fans and headphone
junkies.
The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse was recorded by
Jace Lasek at the Breakglass Studios (whose
production credits include Wolf Parade, Islands,
Sunset Rubdown and Stars, amongst others) with his
wife and band member, Olga Goreas. The other members
of The Besnard Lakes, Steve Raegele, Nicole LizΘe,
and Kevin Laing, contributed as well. Nicole wrote
dark string and horn parts, Steve wrote dark guitar
solos, Kevin, dark drumming. Also joining in on the
making of this record would be George Donoso III
from The Dears, Chris Seligman from Stars, Sophie
Trudeau from Godspeed/Silver Mt. Zion and Jonathan
Cummins from Bionic/Doughboys.
As an interesting aside, the completion of the album
seems to have conjured a bizarre series of
unexplained events. When the six-person live band,
that includes Lasek, Goreas, Raegele, LizΘe, Laing
and third guitarist Richard White, began performing
this new material (usually accompanied by a five
person choir, French horn, flute, and violins),
strange things began to happen. During the quietest
section in the song 'Disaster,' a bartender dropped
a load of dishes onto the floor. On another
occasion, while opening for Wolf Parade, during the
same quiet section in 'Disaster,' the front-of-house
console actually turned off (!) then on again
creating a thunderous crack throughout the theatre.
And Kevin Laing, (drummer) suffered second degree
burns on his face the day after completing drum
tracks for ...The Dark Horse. Coincidence? Maybe.
This is The Dark Horse; this is The Besnard Lakes...