The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night

The Besnard Lakes don’t do lo-fi – a glance at some of their song and album titles hints at a vast, bombastic approach, something that’s immediately apparent in the Montrealers’ dense, multi-layered sound. The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, the band’s 2007 Jagjaguwar debut, was a commendable, if slightly meandering attempt to marry wall-of-sound production with towering guitarscapes and woozy doo-wop harmonies. It came as little surprise to learn that the band – centred around husband-and-wife duo Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas – owned their own studio wherein, as well as producing records for some of Montreal’s leading lights, they had free rein to play around with a vast array of vintage recording equipment – including not one, but two echo chambers. And, while fans of that album will be relieved that the band’s grandiose sound remains intact here, those who were a little underwhelmed last time around will surely be disappointed by the lack of progress that’s been made in the intervening three years. 

You see, while owning your own studio is a luxury most bands would sell their keyboardist into slavery for, listening to …The Roaring Night you can’t help feeling that it somehow works against The Besnard Lakes. As a showcase of technical proficiency, this is about as impressive a feat as you’re likely to hear all year; as a songwriting exercise, however, it falls well short of memorable. Put simply, the group’s compulsive use of all manner of studio effects belies a lack of ideas that makes the majority of these songs feel weighed down and stodgy. 

Take, for instance, ‘Land of Living Skies Pt.2: The Living Skies’; six minutes of barnstorming narcotic rock, with lyrics every bit as deliberately ‘epic’ as its title and a swirling mix that references everyone from Phil Spector to Crazy Horse. There’s certainly nothing wrong with it from a production standpoint; and yet, as soon as it fades out, it’s difficult to recall anything even remotely remarkable about the song. And the truth is that much of the rest of the album drifts by in similarly inconsequential fashion. So, while there’s much to admire in the arsenal of delay pedals and other studio devices that the band have clearly deployed in crafting this record, there’s little here that will warrant repeated listening. Single ‘Albatross’ is a shimmering exception, but if anything its buoyant melody serves to highlight shortcomings elsewhere. 

The overall effect is like being given a meticulously prepared and highly ornamental cake that’s missing one very important ingredient: sugar. Ultimately, The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night is an expertly crafted confection that’s easy to admire, but it’s not one that’s particularly pleasant to consume.