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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
by The Besnard Lakes


8.1

based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 42 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Album number two for the Canadian indie-rockers is their first for Jagjaguwar.

LABEL:	Jagjaguwar
RELEASE DATE:	20 February 2007
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Drowned In Sound

That music so majestically restrained in pace can make your heart beat so quickly is a testament to The Besnard Lakes’ focus and ability to coat each millisecond of track time with an utterly captivating sound without ever becoming clogged up with their myriad ideas.

Uncut

An amazing album. [Mar 2007, p.75]

Under The Radar

Their overarching fingernail-meets-chalkboard eeriness... is what prevents a lapse into the preciousness that sometimes accompanies orchestrated indie rock, making the album a rousing success. [#16, p.90]

NOW Magazine

These are explosive epics that don't get tired, tied together in an album that's both instantly accessible and grows on you over time.

Stylus Magazine

So sure, yet another band of bombast, largesse, room-sound gone cathedral, but either way the Besnard Lakes have mastered their songcraft with this psychedelic oddity, which fits all too well with other wintry early-year indie releases.

Pitchfork

The Dark Horse shares [the debut's] deliberate sense of pacing, precious attention to detail and hermetic sound-world atmosphere; the difference here is that almost every song builds to a crucial moment where the Besnards bravely step out of the shadows, and in the process, transform from being a merely good band to a great one.

musicOMH.com

Too big in their influences and scope to fit in even the biggest pigeonhole imaginable, The Besnard Lakes thankfully produce music chock-full of tunes and spine-tingly loveliness not seen since The Beach Boys or more recently the sheer joy and ridiculous grandeur of The Polyphonic Spree.

No Ripcord

Heroic, monumental and wondrously sensual.

Lost At Sea

Taken as a whole, The Besnard Lakes display a unique style, a winning combination of intriguing songwriting and diverse arrangements.

All Music Guide

It's like a Beach Boys album when it's calm and a Queen album when it's crunchy, but all filtered through what must be one hell of a record collection over at the Goreas-Lasek homestead.

PopMatters

Throughout, interest is held with dynamic and textural changes, more than an inherently riveting musical idea. But the album’s much more than just stoned jams.

Austin Chronicle

The Besnard Lakes have perfected psychedelic harmonies and slurring melodies, but they're so much bigger than that.

Spin

Rarely has dispiritedness sounded so uplifting. [Mar 2007, p.88]

Tiny Mix Tapes

Their flutters of effects, long, frosted periods of sonic dormancy, pefectly balanced twin vocals, and general sense of space set them apart from the herd with a surety you only see in the elite.

New Musical Express

Moments of beauty cut through the bleakness.

Q Magazine

Intriguing, unpredictable and far from ordinary. [Mar 2007, p.110]

cokemachineglow

Sift through Are the Dark Horse and the sounds of the Beach Boys or Orbison can certainly be found, but the band has yet to learn the clean, economical songwriting of their influences.

The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 42 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tim C. gave it a9:
Loved it!

Joel Z. gave it a10:
One of those albums I largely was unimpressed with at first listen but 10 listens later blown away, so intricate and beautiful.

Peter M. gave it a10:
Every listening reveals more of the sonic and melodic complexity of a whole that is gloriously more than the sum of its parts

Grecko X gave it a4:
Ummm... don't listen to this while driving... a soppy, droning experience - not at all what was expected from the reviews.

Adam gave it a9:
I'm so glad I found this album. It's easily one of my favourites of 2007 (and it's been such a great year). A beautiful album.

Dylan S gave it a9:
Absolutely amazing, you don't beat 'Devastation' and 'You Lies To Me' for raw power -- or 'Because Tonight' for sheer beauty. A gem of an album with dynamic pacing and glorious grandeur. They do, as well, rock live, and the smoke machines are insane.

David M. gave it a10:
Just gorgeous. Full of great musical ideas. Mature and distinctive. My favorite of 2007 so far.

The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse by The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
by The Besnard Lakes