The Great Lake Swimmers self-titled debut album shows a promising new Canadian band off, but lacks enough originality in the music to get you through the disc from start to finish. The disc, at times, closely resembles the melancholy groans of Neil Young, but any comparisons to folk singers beyond that are far fetched and have yet to be proven with this album.
The album gets started with the most memorable track on the disc, “Moving Pictures Silent Films,” which sets a promising tone with effective faded out vocals, painful guitar strumming, and the background of crickets chirping. Progressing to the second track the music maintains a melancholic consistency which eventually leads to boredom, while the washed out vocal track throughout simply distracts instead of contributing the desired element. As the unexceptional tracks continue, the straightforward, and at times simplistic, lyrics give the album little life.
Overall, the distinct sound of the opening track, it’s nearly identical “This Is Not Like Home,” and the repetitive, but good, “Three Days at Sea” are worth listening to. Meanwhile, the failed attempt at folk energy on “I Will Never See The Sun,” the distracting and just unpleasant “The Animals of the World,” amongst the rest of the tracks which bleed in together really make this disc a mediocre debut for a promising band. Pick it up if you want to hear a few highlight melancholy tracks, but be prepared to hit the “Skip” button to avoid the redundancy. |