The Besnard Lakes

★★★★

The Besnard Lakes Are The Last Of The Great Thunderstorm Warnings

FULL TIME HOBBY. CD/DL/LP

Canadian psychedelicists return from the wilderness to ponder the after-life

Reawakening after five years’ slumber, The Besnard Lakes’ sixth longplayer finds the Montreal dream-rockers ruminating upon mortality and what lies beyond, inspired in no small part by the passing of singer/guitarist Jace Lasek’s father. Such weighty themes lend further substance to their cosmic tuneage, the Lakes’ signature cloudbursts of synth, FX-laden guitar and Lasek and wife/bandmate Olga Goreas’s heavenly vocals finding hope in the bleakness. It’s a work of sensitive grandeur: earthshifting bass lines underpinning the church organ reveries of Raindrops, cavernous opener Blackstrap all soaring Floydian chord-changes and melting shoegaze textures. The Father Of Time Wakes Up is the standout – a glacial, graceful anthem that reasons “With love, there is no death”, like Flaming Lips shorn of gimmickry – but… Thunderstorm

Warnings doesn’t put a foot wrong, delivering the big music with heart instead of bluster.