The Besnard Lakes : The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night

The feeling of both intimately sparse surroundings and elusive euphoria is a concept very much central to 'The Besnard Lakes Are Roaring The Night'....
8.4 Jagjaguwar
2010 

The Besnard Lakes : The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night Picture a weary voyager on a desolate highway, late at night.  The only things keeping him going are the reflective signs that his headlights continually bounce off of, promising civilization somewhere in the distance.  Finally, when he feels as though he can drive no further, he rounds a corner and sees a wonderful city in the distance.  His mood instantly turns from barren loneliness to unabashed hopefulness.  Our character’s mood changes again as he finds a home in the embracing city lights he has so longed for.  This feeling of both intimately sparse surroundings and elusive euphoria is a concept very much central to The Besnard Lakes Are Roaring The Night.

The album’s sparse atmosphere is almost paradoxical.  Each one of its ten songs starts with a small, arguably psychedelic foundation, and is continually built up until it reaches the beautifully layered feeling that fans of The Besnard Lakes have become so accustomed to.  Songs are stark and lush; at once light and heavy.  Eerie vocals start in quiet, holding beautiful notes as they are joined by airy strings or synth.  The music sits contently at your side at first, then out of nowhere, distorted guitars pick up the tempo, and the intensity drives the two of you into one, amid a fervent shoegaze background.

As a whole, the album duplicates the process of each individual song.  The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night begins within the fresh confines of two-part journey “Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent”.  The airy feeling established here resonates until midway through “Albatross” – coincidentally TBLATRN‘s best song – when the fanatical emotion takes the album up a notch.  Then comes “Land Of The Living Skies”, a softer two-parter that slows things down so far, it leaves you begging for the intensity you were once so apart of.  The Besnard Lakes seem to read your mind though, and they do what they can to bring back the drive on “Light Up The Night”.  The band fades into the roaring night with a mysterious sense ambiguity on “The Lonely Moan”.  The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night may be a tad heavier on the top, but it still manages to be the all the atmospheric album eager listeners have been waiting for, and more.

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