I usually hate comparing bands to other bands they’re similar to; I usually find it a lazy form of cultural shorthand. But in the case of The Besnard Lakes it’s inescapable: the minute I heard their song “Disaster” I said “Wow, it’s like The Beach Boys jamming with a hard rock band!” Pretty, poppy arrangements of vocals and strings mesh up with harder crunchier guitars; slow, meandering tempos sometimes butt heads with a driving force. On the surface it’s a pretty good album but The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse really gets better the more you listen to it; you hear through the musical influences to the band’s original sound. And yet still, it kind of sounds like The Beach Boys, which to me is not a bad thing at all.

Notable Tracks: Disaster; For Agent 13; Rides the Rails