Do you like big vintage guitars? Do you like huge drums? Do you like dreamy, layered harmonies and whimsical melodies? Yes? Well, you’re in the right place.

Recorded at The Besnard Lakes’ own Breakglass Studios in Montreal, “A Coliseum Complex Museum” is all about guitars – red hot ones, white hot ones, wobbly ones and trippy ones; it’s awash with references to a time when Guitar was King, Prog was Queen and Psychedelia was Prince and Princess.

Opening with “Bray Road Beast”, The Besnard Lakes go all “Lucy In The Sky” on us, only to ratchet up the intensity and drown us in a deluge of seismic shoegaze; reverb dripping down walls of guitars and valleys of voice. It’s big, but “Golden Lion” is bigger, with madcap guitar sounds and a juggernaut of a chorus. “Pressure Of Our Plans” completes a bold opening threesome and offers a more varied instrumentation and vocal arrangement – all in all, it’s pretty anthemic stuff.

“Towers Sent Her To Sheets Of Sound” and a little later, “Necronomicon” offer deeper cuts and a druggier tempo. The warbling guitars of “Towers” are something of a focal point, but like most Lakes’ compositions, this track offers cyclical vocal refrains served as swirling harmonies and sections that sound like the needle has momentarily got stuck on the record. “Necronomicon” is the closest thing to pop The Besnard Lakes produce – despite the watery guitars, there are layer upon layer of hooks floating in there. Clocking in at 3:39, it actually ticks just about every box required of a single.

The crowning glory of this royal banquet of guitars is “Plain Moon”. Its darkly driven, heavily psychedelic verses are countered by a half-time chorus of supreme elegance with an unexpectedly delicious Beach Boys-style vocal breakdown. It is chock full of imaginative parts, all imprinted with BL DNA, and has the most glorious false ending I’ve heard in quite some time.

“Nightingale” is a tense and moody affair, sitting well on the album as the penultimate track. There’s a dark Spaghetti Western feel and the lapsteel solo at the end lends a distinctly “One Of These Days I’m Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces” air to proceedings. “Tungsten 4: The Refugee” brings things to a close, probably tipping the scales as the most vintage sounding of the lot. I bet you could have fried an egg on their amps at the time of the recording. It’s another track with lots of counterpointed instrumentation and a welcomed bit of swing. As it propels itself towards the big finish, it does turn into a bit of an guitar orchard, but it’s good fun, and Television fans will love it.

At 8 meaty tracks, “A Coliseum Complex Museum” feels about the right length. With such swathes of sound and intensity, you won’t be craving for more. And, despite overwhelming vintage production, there is more to it than really, really cool guitar sounds – it just takes a bit of finding in such opaque mixes. It feels like a project that has been very true to its brief – in a way, it sounds exactly as the title suggests: big, dense and deeply entrenched in history, but I for one would love to hear a wider range of instruments on future outings.

Adam Atkins

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