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Under The RadarCompletely uninhibited both to its credit and fault, Swan Lake doesn’t always reach the towering combined height set by it’s forerunners, but is able to stand alongside each of them individually. [#15]
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Swan Lake has the literariness of the Decemberist's Colin Meloy, but its members are the kids with the intentional nerd glasses in the poetry workshop -- not the fiction one.
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As a relic relief map of an endearing school of Canadian pop weirdness, Swan Lake's first offering is an accomplishment; still, that doesn't make teasing the occasional shining strand out of so much ugliness any less of a chore.
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Like the best work of its participants, Beast Moans is no pornographer's rubdown; it delivers on its tease.
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This is easily the biggest disappointment of 2006.
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Alternative PressIt seems that when you mix superstar indie-ites, everything is increased exponentially. [Dec 2006, p.190]
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Beast Moans works far better than anyone should have expected.
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With Beast Moans, Swan Lake has married the talent and off-kilter intelligence of all three of its members with something more abstract, more visceral, something that sets it apart from all of their individual work.
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Ultimately, that’s the problem: No one can really decide where to take these songs, so everyone takes them everywhere.
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The songs here are saturated with detail: ornate swirls of neoclassical lyrics, melodies that slither, then loop in on themselves, layers of sonic textures and feral noises. And too often, tunes with good bones cave in under that weight.
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Beast Moans suffers from one weakness: the three members apparently forgot to stop and listen to each other before forging ahead with their own ideas.
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It makes for a great atmospheric record, no doubt, but not the indie-rock tour de force one would expect from these guys.
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It's definitely about as disjointed as they come, and while that loose style seems to invigorate some tracks, it makes for a release that's downright hard to listen to in places.
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Entertainment WeeklyIt's ultimately pretty patchwork. [15 Dec 2006, p.85]
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It's terribly important that you don't give up on this record too easily. Given just a little bit of your precious time, the album will grow into something you never expected.
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UrbBeast Moans has the sound of self-produced rough cuts, mastered so treble-heavy and synth-garbled that it'll never actually feel like a finished record. Which is exactly the appeal. [Nov 2006, p.139]
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UncutBeast Moans can be drowsy at times... but it's punctuated by bursts of poetic insight and near-orgasmic glee. [Jan 2007, p.103]
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SpinIt's alternately spotty and spot-on. [Jan 2007, p.94]
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A muddled mess of convoluted textures that is at times, frankly, unlistenable.
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The indulgences and overreaching take away from the really good songs.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 17
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Mixed: 3 out of 17
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Negative: 0 out of 17
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kdeFeb 23, 2007there are a couple brilliant moments jammed into between far too much poorly produced and never quite fully flushed out songs.
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atticushFeb 9, 2007interesting stuff but ultimately kind of disappointing. it all kind of mixes into one long sludge. albeit sludge with pretty cool moments.
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ErikHDec 9, 2006