After five years of label changes and personal turmoil, the Montreal post-rock collective led by married composer-producer duo Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas return with a double-length exercise in mind-blowing symphonic maximalism.
In contrast to their relatively concise 2016 album A Coliseum Museum Complex, Canada’s answer to the Flaming Lips fully indulge their baroque psych-prog experimentalism on richly layered studio confections that include oblique tributes to Prince and Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis.
Lacek also commemorates his father’s death, on the opulent, gorgeous electro-orchestral epic Christmas Can Wait.
From the dreamy sci-fi doo-wop of Raindrops to the blissed-out noodling of The Dark Side Of Paradise, this trippy sonic banquet is full of knowing homages to Brian Wilson and Pink Floyd.
The anthemic psych-folk title track itself spans 17 minutes, most of which consists of luminous ambient afterglow. The Besnard Lakes might test the listener’s patience at times, but their commendable commitment to monumental scale and ambition often results in something thrillingly beautiful.
