the besnard lakes. is it the besnard lakes? or just besnard lakes? the name alone on a hot day like today conjures up thoughts of cold cold swimming and happiness. lets talk some more facts about this band. 1. another group created by a husband and wife. in this case, jace lasek and olga goreas (mmmm olga bread). i originally thought my wife just had to like the same music as me and as much as me, but now im thinking she has to want to start a band as well. preeeettttty sure this is why im single. 2. they are from montreal. tons of good bands are from montreal. this makes me want to go to montreal, which ive always wanted to do anyway. i drove past it once en route to vermont, and the downtown area from a distance with the mountains in the background looked pretty effing sweet and like a piece of the old world in the new world. no wonder the quebecois dont want to share it with the rest of canada. vive la resistance!

i listened to this album a bunch when i first got it but have since somewhat forgotten about it until today, and listening to it as i post this, im most happy that it has resurfaced. while its a little echo-ey at times, theres something very familiar and comforting about this batch of songs. the opening track “disaster” immediately brings to mind brian wilson and the beach boys and the remaining tracks build upon that and add more of a rock vibe, with a lot less falsetto and by the end you have no idea why you ever made that connection to begin with.

the fact that i chose “for agent 13″ as todays track as part of climax week is pretty much just because that track happened to be top of mind. the beauty of this album is that just about any track would have fallen into that category, a huge reason id love to see this group live. many of the songs start out unassumingly and quietly enough and build into huge rock ballads completely with squealing guitar solos without you even noticing. listening to this album after so long as i write this, its even better than i remember. dont know if this came out in 2007 or 2008 but it makes my top ten albums of the year for whichever of those years it was released.

besnard lakes – for agent 13

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