The Besnard Lakes - 'The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse' (Jagjaguwar) Released 19/02/07

Your debut gains you critical acclaim and underground success, marking you out as a major player in an established scene. So far, so good, then you turn up to write the second album and realise that, the rest of the band has scarpered, so where do you go from there? Ok, so that’s a slightly simplified version of the events of Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek’s past few years, but the fact remains that a lesser duo would have given up at that point. Fortunately enough for the Besnard Lakes’ core members, having their own studio and not being short of useful friends made the whole experience a lot easier.

And thus, with the help of some members of the Dears, Stars and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, they break out from the fertile Montreal scene with an album that is simply impossible to ignore. The latest in a seemingly long line of Canadian collectives with little respect for recognised genres, it all begins innocuously enough. The sparse plucking of strings augmented by Lasek’s Brian Wilson style falsetto can’t properly prepare you for the overwhelming soundscape that unfolds over the course of the album.

Opener ‘Disaster’ builds upon a full two minutes of powerful strings, woodwinds and horns until the drums and heavy guitars chime in, and it’s worth the wait. Even better, and even longer, is the seven-and-a-half minute ‘And You Lied to Me’, built around a swirling guitar hook that is both simple and soaring and recalls the stadium rock pomp of 70s Pink Floyd without the pretension. In short, this is not a band that does snappy pop songs, each song is a journey and may take a few listens to fully appreciate, but your persistence will be rewarded.

The grand majesty of these tracks often belies a darker subtext, and this is very much a winter album. In fact, after several listens, you are still picking up on more instrumentation, subtleties and key changes that you wonder how you missed the first time round. With just eight songs packed into a 45-minute album, you would expect some overlong self indulgence to be on display. That the thought never crosses your mind over the course of that time is testament to the sheer quality of song-writing and performance on display. A triumph over adversity, this album is indeed a dark horse; don’t expect Besnard Lakes to remain such an unknown quantity for long.