The Besnard Lakes are the greatest band ever

[Undertoad]

I can no longer stand quiet. I am here to report that The Besnard Lakes are the finest musical combo in all the lands.

This band has taken me by force, and I have been listening to little else for the last month. I don't think anyone else will like it though...! Hard to describe...

Think experimental. Think psychedelic fuzz guitar, combined with Beach Boys-level vocals and harmonies, with poetically incomprehensible lyrics, and everything run through an effects rack from hell. Astoundingly original. Stunningly beautiful and powerful like a mountain lake landscape. Sometimes hard to digest, but so worth it.

To me, they are basically the new Floyd -- something I will spend hours just listening to, catching all the little details and changes. Entire albums that have a theme, work as a whole and capture a mood. But that's to me, I can't say whether what they do will be effective on anyone else!!

The best introductions, I think, are

"Disaster" - here the Beach Boys aspect is so direct that they don't dare try to avoid it, they go straight AT it, and then twist it. At one point, the Beach Boys harmonies are all MONO, making a point of it -- the Beach Boys were kind of famously mono -- while orchestral stings and fuzz guitar attack us from the left and right. It welcomes headphone listening, because this band is all about creating a sonic atmosphere. Two-thirds of the way through the song, the basic themes crush together, counterpointing each other. And then, holy crap, flutes! It is GENIUS GENIUS GENIUS



"Albatross" - kind of a good overall introduction, here the song is more straight-forward and oriented in reverse - the beautiful harmonies augment the powerful fuzzy alt-rockish song. At 3:09 she sings "And I have to admit, things got weird for a bit" and the whole things crashes into an "everyone playing at once" cacophony... which resolves into a beautiful indie pop harmonies; and suddenly baritone brass joins in the mix; are you kidding me? There's never been anything like this.



"Laura Lee" - the latest single, once again it feels like an alt-rockish sort of thing, but you know how part of the Brian Wilson notoriety is "using the studio as an instrument"" Well this band does that in spades (witness the strings and brass draped over the other songs), but here they're just using rock instruments... but they're using the effects rack as an instrument.

...and it's crazy! Cymbals are coated with phase shifter; harmonies in the chorus are so processed they sort of resemble organ parts. Everything's got a ton of reverb; the drums are cannons, and the guitars are all chime-y. In typical Besnard fashion, at 2:15 the song nearly morphs into a different song. Vocals in the second half are put through deep tremolo, good lord!