Some Are Lakes

About

Elizabeth Powell (who also works with Broken Social Scene) has a voice that is alternately brittle and pliant, but always delicate and laden with with emotion: resignation, dismay and a wary hope color her heart-on-sleeve lyrics. The three-piece band (Powell plays guitar and violin) builds songs into fully developed creations with patience and a simple, sure touch. Not to say this is a lightweight indie band; listen to the opener, “Yuppy Flu,” with its cascades of sturdy guitar, symphonic synths, and glittering percussion, and you know there’s some meat here. <i>Some Are Lakes</i> is produced by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), and you can feel his icy cool aesthetic at play, with a dark mood pervading tracks like the reluctantly soulful “It’s Okay” and the acoustic “Troubled” (recorded in Vernon’s family home in Wisconsin). “The Man Who Breaks Things” gallops along on a brawny rhythm, with the sounds of a plucky mandolin (or a plucked violin?) giving the tune an otherworldly sepia tone, and “Give Me Back My Heart Attack” has an equally urgent feel, morphing into a cranked up, raging rocker. The summertime lilt of Powell’s vocals on the title track shows a vocalist who could have been a country contender under different circumstances. <i>Some Are Lakes</i> packs a whopping punch, but you don’t know it until it’s over.

via Apple Music