Perhaps it's when the opening track fails to present anything remotely coherent or, for that matter, anything remotely musical, that the Wolf Parade fan begins to have doubts about this album. Or maybe the realization sets in later, as the disappointed fan flicks off the last track in disgust and returns to the straightforward and familiar ground of "Apologies to Queen Mary" (2005).
But, sooner or later, anyone who listens to the recently released "Beast Moans" by Swan Lake, featuring Daniel Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers), Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes), will realize that this album leaves much to be desired.
"Beast Moans" opens with the somewhat dubious "Widow's Walk," featuring perhaps 10 seconds of decently articulate lyrics before degenerating into three minutes of faltering moaning and humming, bizarre distorted guitar squeals, and synthesizer arpeggios. The second track, "Nubile Days," shows a little bit more promise, with an upbeat tempo and a mix of acoustic and electric guitar sounds reminiscent of earlier Flaming Lips.
"City Calls" starts out as something vaguely recognizable as music, with a repeating piano and drum line, but quickly devolves into incomprehensibility as soon as the vocals begin. Swan Lake used vocal doubling, over-dubbing and echo when recording the vocals to the point that they actually sound like they are being screeched out by Satan, perhaps prompting the album title.
In "All Fires," listeners are treated to a melodic acoustic track, but still with what appears to be the band's trademark: too much going on in the background. The lyrics relate a rambling love song that waxes too philosophical before returning to the original theme. "The Freedom" represents the most understandable and worthwhile track on the album. Although the vocals are nasal and only partially on-key at least for once a song is allowed to exist as a song and not simply as a vehicle for background noise. The lyrics creatively convey the irony and bitterness the songwriter feels about the phrase, "the truth shall set you free," in the context of a failed relationship.
"The Freedom" transitions smoothly into "Petersburg, Liberty Theater, 1914," a remarkably bearable track featuring a repetitive tambourine and hand drum percussion section and organ sounds suggestive of a '70s game-show theme song. "Bluebird" calls to mind the loud and simplistic drumming and raw vocals of Modest Mouse, but this ballad falls far short of the sort of accepted mainstream sounds of Mouse songs such as "The World At Large" because of the addition of copious amounts of background noise.
"Are You Swimming In Her Pools?" could have been a solid song if Swan Lake had taken the time to record the acoustic guitar line a second time without messing up - yes, they actually used the first take in which Spencer Krug simply stops playing for a second, then picks up and starts again. Finally, the album ends about as uncertainly as it began, with "Shooting Rockets," featuring subdued shouting, chanting, and a variable beat hidden behind layers of more ambient noise.
Altogether, this debut is extremely disappointing, and probably would have benefited heavily from the assistance of a legitimate producer, instead of the band producing the album itself. Within the album, the songs vary from generally disappointing to incoherent and even painful to hear. Swan Lake has gone too far to the outer edges of modern artistic indie to be the least bit enjoyable or even musical, and should reevaluate their style to determine what, if anything, it is. Listeners should stick to the original projects of Swan Lake's band members, such as Wolf Parade, because "Beast Moans" is exactly what its title describes.
