New Great Lake Swimmers Album Review in Free Verse and Acrylic Paint

Illustration: Testing The Water by Corby

The Waves, The Wake

(a review of the fine new album by the Great Lake Swimmers in blank verse, with end-notations)

Originally published at Roots Music Canada

Amorphous yet as meaningful as clouds

They swirl in slow motion in the tentative sky

In merge and flow, floral, choral corridors echo

Drew Jurecka non solo in caelis sed in Ontario terra[i]

 Blocked meteor showers extinguish anguish 

copying the fabric of the ocean’s allure

senses create emotions beyond the flesh

and a pure moment went by when I kissed  you in a wild place. [ii]

Great Lake Swimmers, now,

Turn on their High Beams.[iii]

Crazy lights over the water these days.

Neon shimmers, commas in a horizon,

 Acoustic bathing suits and sonar thongs

Moog-y[iv] wings and boogie winds throng,

Like Beck lit some fireworks in a backwards tunnel [v]

A cappella auricles and antic ventricles[vi]

Donate their frantic frames

To banjo flotation devices; spilled blood evaporates.[vii]

Could have sat in cried puddles,

 but inside Dekker conspired

Conception.[viii]

Gale force strings waltz in a star cello key,[ix]

Colouring book of piano strategies

Fixed and mixed in a single word,

Unfenced.[x]

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[i] Although Drew Jurecka, the applause-winning fiddle player who has filled the Miranda Mulholland-sized hole in Great Lake Swimmers, is not technically a god, his orchestration on “The Talking Wind” is truly beneficent.

[ii] Many of the images in the lyrics hinge on elliptical sensory and sexual references that viscerally underpin the more spiritual tone of the music.

[iii] The “roots” quality of the band’s previous output has taken a swerve skyward with this trance-able summery foray into a more ethereal aesthetic.

[iv] Although no Moog synthesizer is actually credited, the celestial wobbliness of its tonality permeates the record, through the combined agencies of harp, cello, vibraphone, pedal steel and flute.

[v] Beck’s Grammy-winning 2014 album Morning Phase could have served as a template/touchstone for Chris Stringer’s production values on The Waves The Wake.

[vi]Centerpiece of the record is a tune called “Visions of a Different World,” which reverberates with voices alone. “Love is our only weapon, our only defense.”

[vii] Eric Arnesen brings a banjo to bear on “In a Certain Light” creating a melodic rather than rhythmic fabric with which to buoy the song.

[viii] Swimming coach and lyricist Tony Dekker, although positive and forward-looking throughout the album, maintains an effective but steadfastly melancholy tone that seems to be a part of his vocal DNA.

[ix] Cellist Kirk Starkey contributes a mellow richness to the central tracks, and has a fascinating surname.

[x] The elusive niche category of music that this record occupies might be designated as astro-roots, chamber-surf or rural chorale. Listen and decide for yourself.