The Besnard Lakes - You Lived In The City EP (Jagjaguwar)

The Besnard Lakes have this wonderful tendency to recognize its individual strengths, call upon them, while making you forget about other individual strengths. They can make a rock record and convince you they are a great rock band. They can make a record of dark, moody instrumental electronica, and you won’t think about their more rock-oriented moments. Of course, that probably has to do with their leader, Jace Lasek, being one of those studio wizard types, one who can stylistically shape-shift without notice. You Lived In The City, a 4-track vinyl EP, is the band’s latest release, and it is, as expected, a beautiful record of atmospherics. Opening song “We’re Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time)” is a deep, haunting philosophical number about the temporal nature of life. It is dreamy and lulling, as are most of the songs by Olga Goreas. The next two songs, “Holiday Sin” and “Some Color In The Sky,” are gorgeous neoclassical numbers that are quite capable of taking you into a dreamworld. The final number, “The Corner,” returns the vocals and hints at the band’s bigger rock moments, and leaves you with a sense that this EP is meant to be appreciated from beginning to end; a mini cinematic experience for the listener. It is pretty, and while it doesn’t fully reach the big, loud moments of the band’s most recent albums, you wouldn’t think them capable of such things after listening to this sublime EP—much like you would be surprised that they could make music as gorgeous as this. A pleasant diversion, this.