The band Great Lakes was formed in Athens, GA in the mid-1990s as a trio with assorted guest contributions and loose Elephant 6 connections, releasing their debut full-length in 2000. After 22 years, a half dozen albums, and a move to New York (first Brooklyn and now upstate), founding member Ben Crum is long-ensconced as leader and principal songwriter, with a coterie of sturdy familiars helping to bring the music to fruition. Contenders is album seven, another sturdy and diverse effort out now on vinyl and digital through the Happy Happy Birthday To Me label.
It was with the 2010 release Ways to Escape that Ben Crum became the creative focal point of Great Lakes. Drummer Kevin Shea and vocalist Suzanne Nienaber contributed to that record and every album since. Joining them on Contenders are additional vocalists Chris Ziter and Ray Rizzo, drummer Louis Schefano, pianist Petter Folkedal, and on synthesizer, Dave Gould.
The earlier albums of Great Lakes regularly brought comparisons to the Elephant 6 twee-psych shebang (for want of a better term), but with 2016’s Wild Vison, ’18’s Dreaming Too Close to the Edge, and now Contenders, those associations have long been shaken off and replaced in part with strains of Americana, or maybe better said, indie heartland rock (but not alt-country) and with a few singer-songwriter undercurrents.
While these aspects remain on Contenders, the album begins, surprisingly and strikingly, in the neo-psych zone with “Eclipse This,” and not psych-pop but dark with a slow tribal throb groove and gnawing, swirling guitars, with touches of the Velvets (think “Venus in Furs”) and even the early Doors (or maybe just ’60s LA psychedelia in general).
“Way Beyond Blue” brings an immediate shift in gears, ramping up with melodic rock that reminds me a bit of Teenage Fanclub, but with the Big Star roots a little more obscured. In a shrewd maneuver, Nienaber echoes Crum’s vocals throughout the track, and does something similar in the following cut “Easy When You Know How,” as another neo-psych groove springs into motion.
With “Baby’s Breath” the pace and the catchiness kicks up once again, but this time inspiring thoughts of mid-’90s Yo La Tengo. It’s with “I’m Not Listening” that the abovementioned heartland (or maybe just trad) rock sensibility comes to the fore, the aura magnified by the prevalence of organ in the track and further distinguished by Crum’s lyrical sharpness.
Crum’s smart, though he stops short of bookish, with the sound of his voice and his delivery continuing to recall (occasionally, mind you) David Lowery, he of Camper Van Beethoven and (more pertinent here) Cracker. Yes, Crum’s smart, and as said, diverse, with the decidedly ’50s-ish “Born Frees” (“sha-doop, doop-doo-wah”) bringing the first of Contenders’ big stylistic detours.
The song gets me to thinking about Lou Reed (without sounding anything like the guy), which is a marvelous turn of events. But if varied in style, Crum is never unfocused, as “Last Night’s Smoke” is another tough, intelligent rocker. And if Crum did drift into bookish territory (but perhaps I really mean eccentric) he could draw comparisons to David Berman and Bill Callahan. Upon consideration, I think Crum’s relative straightforwardness (that’s is, he’s distinctive but not eccentric) is an asset.
“Wave Fighter,” Contenders other major detour, features a lead vocal by Nienaber. It’s an uninhibited move into late ’70s morning AM radio mellowness, a move that requires sincerity to work, though it helps that Nienaber sounds a bit like Sally Timms here. If a sizable departure, the song’s not at all disruptive to the album’s flow, reminding me further of Kendra Smith’s lead vocal turn on the Dream Syndicate’s The Days of Wine and Roses in that regard.
“Broken Even” is a stomper with a slight garage inflection (more of that organ) as Crum’s vocals, oozing forth unperturbedly with a husky-timbred reflectiveness, provide an appealing offset. It sets up finale “Your Eyes Are Xs,” which lays on layers of thick guitar sustain and echo in a savvy bit of circularity with the album’s opener. It solidifies Contenders as yet another successful effort for Ben Crum and Great Lakes.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
