The Bedtime Playlist

mmm...album art?

I have to say I'm already hoping The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night - the album pictured above, by none other than Montreal's husband and wife duo The Besnard Lakes - will make the Top 10 of this year's Polaris Prize, rewarding the best in Canadian music. I'm not here to review the album though, only the song that got me into the group and anticipating the above release, so forgive me for getting ahead of myself.

Some background before I start then. As I've said before, this blog is just as much about the intricacies and the various ways of discovering music as it is about the songs themselves. The Besnard Lake's "Albatross" fits in perfectly with that theme. I for one, can't fall asleep without music or the radio playing. For years, this used to be sports talk radio, but this year I started playing music on my laptop - and much like picking something good for taking a shower to, the Bedtime Playlist is a similar balancing act of music I enjoy, but that doesn't engage me so much that I can't get to sleep. That means finding a measure between the upbeat tune of The Weakerthans and the seemingly-too-subdued harmonies of Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear. 

I mention those three groups because I've playlists of all three, and usually I'll fall back on my range of playlists for bedtime music. Somehow, I strain so much to hear the quieter music of Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear that I can't just relax and go to sleep. The Weakerthans on the other hand, as I mentioned, produce lyrics and imagery so engaging that I can't properly clear my head enough for slumber. 

That leaves me with a lot of night-time listens to the xx (chronicled here for their great nocturnal-soundtracking), Broken Social Scene (whose expansive sounds and lush instrumentation provide a strange, "washed-clean" slate of a mind before bed), and The New Pornographers, for whom I can't really provide a back-up, but who just sound so great and have enough epic and slow-tempo numbers that they're passable as bed-going fare. You might think Radiohead and The National could slide in here and steal some plays, but to be frank, I've tried that route with The National, and after a few times, I found the music just too depressing for that kind of listening. Plus  anyone that feels like Thom Yorke crooning them to sleep with his detached and unhuman voice should re-consider what they consider is creepy and what's not.

So anyway, all that aside, my laptop's right there at my bedside. This also means that when I wake up to my alarm clock, I usually roll over, shut it off, and effectively hit the "snooze" button by turning on CBC Radio3's live stream and lying half-asleep in bed until I figure I have to get up (full disclosure: that's during the school year, when the first thing I have all day is an 11:30am class...doesn't work so well for the summer job that starts at 8am). Something like that went down in late January of this year, when I heard the most compelling thing in quite some time on Radio3. I had no idea what it was; I'd never heard it before, and it wasn't even similar to anything I had ever heard. I don't remember how exactly I came to find out the name of the track, but I think I was awake enough that I heard the host say something about the b-something lakes, and an albatross.

For my luck, I had no idea at the time who The Besnard Lakes were, how to spell it, and if the Lake was even pluralized. I did some thorough searching though, found the group's wikipedia page, and discovered they were from Montreal, and had already produced a Polaris Prize-nominated album, The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse. The song was indeed called "Albatross", and though it took me a couple days to get that particular track (which I had glossed over earlier in the month when Pitchfork had given it a 7/10 in the tracks and singles section), I got their debut album instead and gave their spaced-out and lengthy jam-rock sound a good listen.

The Besnard Lakes - "Albatross"

The song on its own has to be my favorite thing from The Besnard Lakes, hands down. It combines so much of what they do, so much of their signature sound and style, with the immediacy and listenability of more pop-oriented music. It's the Lakes at their most focused, most emotional, and tightest, without compromising their unique musical identity. From the otherworldly clangs of those first few fuzzed-out guitar notes, to the cartoony "wooooo"s to Olga Goreas' unconventionally gorgeous voice, everything there is to love about the duo is on full aural display.

"Albatross" drops into the grandeur quicker than most other Besnard Lakes tunes, and when it slows down around the 2:40 mark, you think the best may have already come. Then Olga hits you with possibly my favorite line of the year: "and I have to admit/things got weird for a bit", followed by all the sounds mentioned above - plus an array of crashing cymbals - coming together once again in glorious unison to push the song to new heights. Once it's settled back down, it starts to carry a triumphant feeling, the vocals repeating "and I scream for you!/there goes my man".

If it all sounds a little strange, maybe it is, but the feeling in Olga's voice throughout is unmistakable: it's love, it's longing, it's a bit of sadness, and in the end, it's a veritable pride in the one you love. The lines are endlessly quotable and relatable, especially the first-half chorus of "you showed me so much", but also ones like "I wanted to help you" and the heartstring-tugging, "those days are never gone/wish I had your picture". I'm practically giving the whole thing away like candy on Halloween, but I think that alludes to my attachment and appreciation of "Albatross". Thought it may not help put me to sleep, it certainly speaks to me.