The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night

The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, the third full-length from this Canadian-based husband-and-wife duo, is a beautifully composed conceptual rock album that relates a story of war and espionage.

From the onset, the mixture of haunting guitar and sinister subject matter emanates a heavy blanket of sound that wraps around you and keeps you captivated throughout the album. In "Albatross," one of the most moving songs on the record, Olga Goreas takes the lead vocals in a style somewhat reminiscent of Mazzy Star. Midway through it she sings, "And I have to admit/Things got weird for a bit" over a mellow backdrop of guitar; there is a slight pause before the music roars back in full force, armed with crashing cymbals, guitars, and horns. The track reveals a certain genius that isn't quite as evident anywhere else, but the album is something that fits together as a whole and deserves to be listened to from beginning to end with complete attention paid to every exquisite detail.