Popsheep

The Great Lake Swimmers are a band from Toronto that I really don't know much about aside from what I've read on their website. I'm pretty sure that it's mostly a solo effort with a few other guest musicians. I bought the debut album on impulse because it has really great album art with a half handmade, half manufactured look to it. The album turned out to be a kind of melancholy, stripped down folk/indie rock – I don't know how to describe it, except that it's precisely the kind of music I'm usually a sucker for. I guess comparisons could be made with the Red House Painters/earlier Will Oldahm/Smog or something like that, but I wouldn't take my word for it.

Best of all is that the album was recorded in an abandoned grain silo! Not so much a gimmick, the recording space seems to have given the whole thing a really warm, natural reverb. The song linked to below is filled with references to Toronto geography, with the chorus consisting of the names of four consecutive subway stops being repeated along with the lyrics 'I will never see the sun/one for nothing, all for one'. Although more upbeat than the rest of the album (seriously), this song's subterranean theme fits in very well with the overall melancholy tone of the other songs on the album.

Great Lake Swimmers - I will never see the sun