Lakes of Canada’s Transgressions has quite a backstory: bandleader Jake Smith wrote it in the aftermath of the 2010 murder of his mother. He’s tied his lyrics to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian Canadian classic The Handmaid’s Tale, a book he found while going through her belongings. But the latter comes off as a bit of a stretch – or a marketing gimmick. Little here brings the book to mind, despite titles and lyrics that directly reference it.
Also hard to reconcile are the five-piece’s disparate influences: soulful gospel at one end and hyper, frenzied indie rock at the other. The two hardly ever meet in the middle. Impassioned performances – Smith gives everything when singing, occasionally evoking a more nasal Adam Levine – and wailing Santana-esque guitar leads add over-the-topness.
Gospel a cappella track Eden gets things off to a great start, and Prologue, with its gorgeous choral backups, has religious fervour. But when the band goes the other way, the result is often clamorous, overstuffed and even eye-rolling, like the baroque Handmaid’s Tale 2, sung by Smith and keyboardist Sarah Morasse.
Top track: Eden
Lakes of Canada play Bier Markt King West on Thursday (November 19).
