Acres of Lions – Working (Cordova Bay Records)
Emotive vocals and pop-punk sensibilities collide on Working, the full-length debut from Victoria, B.C.’s Acres of Lions. Channeling the introspective balladeering of bands like Snow Patrol and Motion City Soundtrack, the album’s ten songs are a collection of moody, atmospheric guitars and rhythmic power-pop.
Jeffrey Kalesnikoff’s vocals dominate the mix, bringing a tortured quality to the record—so much that even the band’s most energetic efforts like “Dance Sequence” and “December” are anything but uplifting. Instead, the prevailing mood is one of quiet suffering. Kalesnikoff’s tortured croon makes songs like “Best Day Ever” and the title track sound sentimental, if not downright mushy.
The hooks are decent enough, with multi-instrumentalist Tyson Yerex contributing captivating guitar and synthesizer accompaniment, but the band seems too reliant on similar melodies and phrasings. “Entertainment” begins in earnest with a smooth and attractive guitar line, but slowly meanders into a radio-repulsive six-minute oblique wall of sound, losing the listener in the process.
Overall, Working is an uneven effort, torn between its complex and introspective vocals and heavily layered composition. Acres of Lions are a talented young band, but there are kinks to be ironed out before they return to the studio. —Luke Savage
Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels (Nettwerk)
Great Lake Swimmers lead singer Tony Dekker has one of the most distinctive voices in Canadian music. On the bright side, it clearly identifies Lost Channels as Dekker’s work within the first few seconds of lead track “Palmistry.” Yet despite a drastic lineup change since their self-titled 2003 debut, Lost Channels sounds like any other Great Lake Swimmers album.
The band’s outdoorsy charm is maintained through the album’s non-traditional recording venues, which include St. Brendan’s Church in tiny Rockport, Ontario, and Singer Castle on Chippewa Bay’s Dark Island.
The haunting echoes of Lost Channels work magic on the voice of local songwriter Serena Ryder, who appears for the tender duet “Everything is Moving So Fast.” The wistful guitar ballads continue with “Concrete Heart,” which features shout-outs to the CN Tower and Toronto Public Library as if they were stops on a rural road trip. But Dekker sounds impossibly far away as he contemplates bittersweet life and love in Toronto, as emotionally distant from the city as we are from the wilds of Ontario.
The stand out track is the confessional “River’s Edge,” on which Dekker muses, “If it’s good and it’s true/Let it wash over you/Untethered and without reason.” As the embodiment of this simple entreaty, Lost Channels is quietly satisfying work, well worth a listen. —Shoshana Wasser
