The Besnard Lakes
The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (Jagjaguwar)After playing The Dark Horse with 2007’s sophomore album, the Besnard Lakes now inhabit The Roaring Night, filling the darkening parameters with an expansive crush of guitar battered swells and gorgeously rent atmospherics. Helmed by husband-and-wife duo Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, the Montreal quartet opens on two-part epic “Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent,” gradually eclipsing the dark ambience with heavy melodic riffs. High, unintelligible vocals floating through the beginning of “Chicago Train” suggest Sigur Rós before ceding to scarring riffs, while “Albatross” dreams Mazzy Star into the Sonic Youth scrawl of “Glass Printer.” The backside launches on a shoegaze-heavy counterpart to the front end with “Land of Living Skies” Parts I and II and is anchored by the soaring seven-minute reverb dream of “Light Up the Night.” Roaring Night is an immersive, captivating experience, beautifully lush yet uncompromisingly powerful. (Thu., 8:30pm, Stubb’s.)
This article appears in March 19 • 2010.