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Far removed from the desolation I feel surrounded by, Land of Talk's first full-length album's sense of hope, grounded in realism, is at once reassuring and encouraging.
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The wonder of Some Are Lakes is the fact that such arguably masculine instrumentation goes such a long way to buoy Powell's lady vocals. Neither takes a backseat, and the combination feels way natural.
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Elizabeth Powell, the lead singer of this three-piece Montreal indie-rock band, sounds marvelously self-assured on Some Are Lakes, its reverberant full-length debut.
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Like her game soprano, which breaks apart with the same lucid strength it sometimes uses to soar with trepidation, Land of Talk's music unleashes its own aggressive logic.
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MojoWith her flinty guitar growling eloquent melodies and stricken solos, the group rock with a primal sensitivity akin to early Throwing Muses, but it's Powell's voice that's their truly irresistible element. [Nov 2008, p.118]
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This Montreal group's first full-length features a slightly brighter, looser sound than their wonderfully sludgy 2006 EP, perhaps due to the input of Justin Vernon (a.k.a. folkie marvel Bon Iver), who coproduced with the band.
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Produced by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, cuts like 'Yuppy Flu' and 'It's Okay' are steeped in morbid imagery, but Powell's passionate delivery makes this set life-affirming.
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Some Are Lakes is a record that grows in stature with repeated listens, whispering more of its secrets under the still blanket of late nights.
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Though the album works overall, considering how much she dominates it--to say nothing of the constant roster changes and some recent singular success in the form of joining Broken Social Scene--you have to wonder if Powell wouldn’t be better off on her own.
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As violent, plaintive, and ultimately conflicted as anything she's already written ("I know how to kill but I hate how it feels."), many of Powell's lyrical sketches are of the blood red, open-heart-surgery variety, a word set her producer knows well.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 9
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Mixed: 0 out of 9
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Negative: 1 out of 9
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Oct 14, 2021
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DannyVOct 24, 2008
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dersOct 22, 2008Beautiful vocals. A little like an indie Edie Brickell Mezmorizing, raw backing tracks. Brilliant.