Great Lake Swimmers – 'Caught Light' Album Review

12 minutes ago
3 min read

Tracklist:

One More Dance Around The Sun
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
For You To Come Around
Youth Not Wasted
Endless Detours
Running Out Of Time
Caught Light
A Distant Star
The Fledgling Jay
All The Best

Canadian Indie Folk band Great Lake Swimmers are about to release their latest album, 'Caught Light', on the 28^{th of} April via Harbour Songs before embarking on a UK tour this May with five dates.

Tony Dekker is the creative force behind the band, but this time has stepped back a bit and allowed others such as producer Danny Yates to step forward and have more creative input.

The result is a lush Americana Folk album of beautiful melodies, poignant lyrics, a touch of romance and some pathos. The vocals are sumptuous, the playing both restrained on some songs and exuberant on others.

It does have the feeling of an album that you put on later in the evening, put the fire on, if you have one (can you still get a fire on your tv, that might be an option?) and just sit back let it wash over you and imagine your cruising through the Rockies or Shenandoah window down on your way to the local bar for a an evening with friends.

By the time you get there you will either be depressed or elated but I think for most people it’s likely to be the latter. How can you listen to this album and not enjoy it? It’s like being wrapped in a warm blanket of sound while being made to think hard about the world and those around you, especially those you care about.

If you have been lucky enough to get tickets to any of the shows in Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester or London I think you’re going to be in for a real treat. There’s some blues grass like material, some songs you can dance to and some songs you will just want to sway along to. If they can recreate this album’s intimacy and immediacy live, they will have nailed it.

There are clear inspirations in 70’s folk pop/rock and yet there is a lovely feeling of classic country and folk. I haven’t heard an Americana album this good in quite a while. It’s feels both incredibly thought through and spontaneous at the same time. You can imagine those playing on this album sitting around a studio and just jamming some of the songs while at the same time thinking very carefully about what they were trying to do which I know sounds like a contradiction but it’s a contradiction the works really well!

By the time many bands get to their ninth album they are a spent creative force, just treading water and rehashing what they’ve done before, this album couldn’t be further from this, it has a vibrancy about it that makes you wish you’d been there when it was being recorded.

If you can, go see them play the UK dates of their European tour as I think the gigs will be the type of gigs you keep thinking about for days afterwards, a communal experience of just how good music can be. I didn’t know Great Lake Swimmers before this album, but I will now be investigating if the rest of their music is as good as this!