A Coliseum Complex Museum [LP] in Bloomington, MN

There are five musicians in
the Besnard Lakes
, but it sounds like some sort of pop orchestra was on hand to record the group's fifth full-length album, 2016's
A Coliseum Complex Museum
. The scope of this music is vast, combining the melodic angles of indie pop with the grand scale ambitions of prog rock, and group founders
Jace Lasek
and
Olga Goreas
are determined to make the most of it, filling every nook and cranny of these songs with banks of guitars, keyboards, percussion, and massed vocals, until the music takes on the shape of a vast ship at sea, moving deliberately but with a strong sense of purpose through choppy waters in the chilly nighttime. And if that all sounds a bit much, well, that's just how
do things, and they do them well.
doesn't just sound big, it makes genuine melodic sense out of its multi-tracked aural landscapes (
Lasek
owns the studio where they record, which makes their level of sonic perfectionism affordable), and while the lyrics for the eight songs on hand don't really cohere into a thematic whole, the recurring theme of people in transit fits in with the music's broad sense of wanderlust. And as much as this music towers over the listener, there's a modest humanity in
's lead vocals that helps this album keep one foot in the real world.
is further proof that
are a band with big ideas and real vision, and just as importantly, they have the talent and focus to makes those ideas into something worth hearing. ~ Mark Deming