LAKE FOREST plays Saving Gigi February 24 and 25. See listing. Rating: NNN
Will Whitwham stepped away from his work with the Wilderness of Manitoba to pen this batch of wispy folk tunes under the solo moniker Lake Forest. But aside from their more bare-bones arrangements and lack of multipart harmonies, they aren’t much of a departure from WOM.
Undertaken last winter as a song-a-day project, the results include a few too many hallmarks of the played-out indie folk genre: introspective lyrics, nature imagery (in the lyrics and artwork), fragile, melancholic tone, breathy reverbed-out vocals that climb into falsetto range. A few, like Ohio, slip right through your fingers.
Which isn’t to say that the songwriting isn’t solid, or that these nine tunes don’t offer rewards to a listener. The instrumental Teepee comes as a nice surprise, with its vaguely off-tempo layers and banjo-and-piano-laced parts, while the sophisticated Birds Of Prey has fine guitar-picking and unusual melodies.
Whitwham’s engaged and committed throughout, which ensures that the tunes, though sombre, never grow morose.
Top track: Birds Of Prey
