GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS play the Music Hall June 2. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Canadian folk-rockers Great Lake Swimmers are known for finding and incorporating creative locations into their recordings. But for their fifth album, they went the traditional route, hunkering down at Revolution Recording studio in Toronto with long-time producer Andy Magoffin.
The result is a poppy, polished, triumphant record augmented by backup vocals and violin from new member Miranda Mulholland. Tony Dekker’s voice has lost some sadness and delicacy but none of its beauty. Heavily inspired by the natural world, he sings of transformations, the cycle of life and death and a fish’s perspective on the knife it’s under.
The band successfully experiments with tempos, though Changes With The Wind is slightly hectic. If you miss the field recordings, check out third song The Great Exhale, recorded in Lower Bay Station.
Top track: The Great Exhale
