Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

Firstly, a lesson for the uninitiated. Swan Lake are a Canadian supergroup made up of Dan Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers, Hello Blue Roses), Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Blackout Beach) and Spencer Krug (ex-Frog Eyes, Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown).  All three of these men are tremendous solo artists in their own rights.

Now, I have always been a Swan Lake fan, ever since first hearing 'The Freedom' from their first album 'Beast Moans'.  Add to this my obsession with Sunset Rubdown, my love of Destroyer, and my more-than-passing admiration of Blackout Beach, and it's easy to see that I'm not the most open-minded of reviewers when it comes to a release like this.  But since when has that stopped me?

This album is brilliant.  There's no other way of putting it.  Perhaps the most noticeable change since 'Beast Moans' is that the songs feel more like collaborative efforts from the three disparate voices of Dan Bejar, Spencer Krug and Carey Mercer, whereas the first album often felt like a compilation of songs by the three individuals (with the ocassional additions).

You can still hear who wrote which song - and not just from the tell-tale sign of who sings it - as the individual styles of each of three are immediately present.  However, with three songwriters as talented as these, this is surely a good thing and one to be expected. When listening to the New Pornographers, certain songs scream out with Dan Bejar's influence, some of Wolf Parade with Spencer Krug's, and so on, so Swan Lake songs are clearly going to have the signatures of their authors upon them.

My favourite songs have to be 'Paper Lace' and 'Settle On Your Skin'.  It is no surprise that these are both Spencer Krug songs, since he is my favourite of the three members of Swan Lake.  But the whole album is - as I said at the start - brilliant, a lesson in quality.

'Enemy Mine' is out now on Jagjaguwar.