New Album from Four (cough) Weeks Ago: Beast Moans by Swan Lake

Whew! Caught up just in time!

Canada is a land of maple syrup, moose, hockey, and hi-hat like heads if their boisterous southern neighbors are to be believed. I don’t understand why, but for some reason Americans just can’t take Canada seriously. It is fairly common for all things Canadian to downplay their heritage just so they can be taken more seriously by American consumers. I find this ridiculous, many fantastic artists are Canadian. A great portion of television is filmed in British Columbia. Hell, basketball was invented by a Canadian. Enough is enough! It is time that we respect the second largest nation in the world, or at the very least not care if someone is Canadian or not… So in support of all things Canadian, I give you the Indy super group Swan Lake.

Swan Lake is a trio consisting of Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes, Daniel Bejar of Destroyer and The New Pornographers, and Spencer Krug of Frog eyes, Sunset Rubdown, and Wolf Parade. Basically three of the gods of 2000’s Canadian Indy Rock came together and made an album in 2006. Admittedly I am not an expert on any of these bands (though I have heard of them). So you should expect to see some albums by them in the next couple of months.

I came across Beast Moans using the most (sarcasm) reliable source available, iTunes recommendations. For weeks on end, Beast Moans would pop up whenever I bought a new album. It perked my interest but for some reason I hesitated. I listened to the 15 second samples on iTunes and they did nothing for me (I know, that is a really stupid way to find music). Steve told me it was an excellent album but that the middle was “mostly noise”; that made me skittish. Finally, after weeks of being on edge, I took the plunge. I am extremely happy that I did.

At first I was nonplussed. I listened to it in the background as I worked and road the train. It just didn’t stick out, it felt like noise. However, when I later gave it a real listen I fell completely in love. The album is a bit defuse, which explains why Steve called the middle “noise” and why I was initially unimpressed. Some songs take a while to really get started, others fade in and out of ambient noise, and others shift from tight to loose sounding. Yet this is just part of the aesthetic, it is purposely obscure. It is in a way similar to The Wall by Pink Floyd, not in the way that songs flow together but in that the songs themselves shift and flow. The music strongly reminds me of impressionist paintings (as does the cover art), filled with swirling colors that sum together to form an image.

It is clear that Swan Lake is a super group just from listening to the songs. Though all of the songs work well together and sound like they come from the same band, they clearly come from different writers. The slight changes in style can be detected if you pay close attention. Yet by making the whole album diffuse this slight variance adds to the album instead of detracting from it; the differences are not jarring.

Yet the diffuseness of the album is not perfectly balanced. The first seven songs are dominated by the more focused, tighter songs. The next four songs are the more diffuse songs on the album, creating Steve’s section of noise. I do not think that this is necessarily a fair statement; I can clearly distinguish between and enjoy each of these songs separately, unlike more ambient music. However, the distinction between the first half and this section makes them feel more like “noise”.

Overall this album has some really fantastic tracks. I was shocked to find that I already knew Are You Swimming in Her Pools? The album starts with a nice bang with Widow’s Walk and Nubile Days. My favorite song on the album, A Venue Called Rubella, is filled with echoes, swirling noises, and adjunct sounds. To me, it really embodies the impressionist aesthetic I mentioned earlier. The song below, All Fires, is absolutely beautiful and immensely sad. The lyrics are really quite touching and fill me with a most glorious sorrow that is almost cathartic. The line “500 pieces means 500 float, 1000 people mean 500 don’t” might just be one of my favorite lines of all time. Finally Shooting Rockets closes off the album. It gives off a really eerie vibe; it sounds like the moans of dying beasts (see what I did there) and is the perfect way to end the album.

Beast Moans is a really fantastic piece of work. I know I highly recommend a lot of the albums that I review on this site, but Beast Moans is definitely tied for number one with Bitte Orca. I would dare to say that both of these albums are on my list of “albums to listen to before you die”. I cannot wait to get into Swan Lake’s related bands (and their other album). If Beast Moans doesn’t earn Canada a little respect then I don’t know what will. Jim Carrey?