25 Mar 09
Great Lake Swimmers
(Wiki) | (Last.FM) | (Myspace)
Lost Channels
[March 31, 2009] | [Nettwerk]
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7.4/10
Great Lake Swimmers like water apparently. If you hadn’t guessed it from their name (no it’s not a self-proclamation on swimming lakes!), their first album was self-titled, their last album, Ongiara, is the name of a boat and original name for the Niagara Falls, and now they’ve recorded Lost Channels in the Thousand Islands getting the name from the Lost Channel where a reconnaissance boat went missing in 1760. Yea I know, next they’ll be covering the Titanic soundtrack and singing about H20 (“Oooh! Oooh! H20!”), but let’s save that for another conversation. Channels staggers its songs from love’s forlorn to the lively and upbeat melodies throughout the album. And though it ultimately holds a grayish sobering feel to it, there are a few lively gems in there that show great progression of Great Lake Swimmers.
The two upbeat album starters, “Palmistry” and “Pulling on a Line” gather energy from the drums and acoustic steadily moving the beat forward together while the electric guitar chimes to spice the song up. The album’s single “Pulling on a Line” in particular has the guitars fall downward into the hook only to be pulled back up into rhythm by the pounding of the drums. Nestled within the two songs is “Everything is so Fast”, and while it becomes unnecessarily elongated towards the end, it’s waves of highs and lows reflect a quiet ocean’s, and is an atmospheric introspective piece. “Concrete Heart” is similar but a violin and piano are brought in, and a slow progression brings the two together as Dekker closes the song out with the repeating of “Concrete heart, concrete heart / Concrete heart, concrete heart.”
The album however begins to show its true strength in the two middle songs, as this rather typical folk-rock assembly highlights a riveting shoegaze piece, “She Comes to me in Dreams”, that is reminiscent of Slowdive. It then follows it up by an exceptional western-Americana piece “Chorus in the Underground” that is animated in spirit, unique in texture, and ultimately mesmerizing without sacrificing instrumental ability. It’s one of the strongest folk-rock tracks to surface this year as the accordion, violin, lute, and acoustic all intermix to pull in a unique direction.
Yet, as the album nears its ending, it begins to wane. The 8th track “Stealing Tomorrow” is a dispirited song that lets electrical ambience linger throughout the song as if to suggest Dekker’s lyrics are similarly struggling to hold on: “And I built this all around me/I refuse to let anyone through/Oh no, not even you.” Yet Lost Channels, lacking any kind of subtly, immediately crashes into next song “Still” whose overbearing, loud and repetitive acoustic guitar drowns the song into boredom. The remaining tracks fall into mediocrity until ending track “Unison Falling into Harmony” rescues the album’s quickening nosedive to a rough but acceptable landing.
In a Pitchfork review of 2007’s Ongiara, writer Liz Colville concludes: “Still, what detracts from this album is just how light it is: It doesn’t need anger, darkness, or mania to prop it up, but it does need variety and vivacity, something only tempo changes and more frequent sprinklings of different tones and bolder instrumentation could accomplish.” Seemingly taken this advice - Lost Channels shines during the upbeat melodies of “Chorus in the Underground”, “Palmistry”, and “Pulling on a Line”; yet, it still has fallen victim to traversing well-known terrain by staggering in low-tempo distressful songs that can be moving, but also a musical bore. However, Lost Channels has succeeded in creating a common theme - that is, the Lost Channel is assimilated to the mystery of where past love disappears to after it has departed. And throughout the album, each song adds a shade of definition to such a statement giving the album’s darker moments greater depth. And though we may never figure out the mysteries of love or lost British reconnaissance boats, we typically let these things go to keep ourselves upbeat and happy. Channels is able to accomplish the same, and though more sobering than fun, it has its moments of excitement and playful vitality.
-Mark
