Great Lakes

Diamond Times

(Empyrean)

Record Review by Alexis Roberts

The Great Lakes’ second full length, Diamond Times, is a celebration of noise created for just what the album title is:  the diamond times in our day-to-day lives. They may not be the best, but they are the times we tend to remember the most for whatever reason, and these are the songs sung about those times. All this happy-happy-joy-joy music can put even the most cynical bitch in a pleasant mood.

Diamond Times opens with the somewhat sorrowful “SKY017,” which is a song that makes one reminisce about whet they’ve done wrong in their lives and how to fix it. The chorus sings “it’s all you can do/ to take what was taken from you” over countryesque riffs and organ. As the album progresses, the songs pick up in tempo and exude a cheerful mood. “Hot Cosmos” is a poppy little tune that features a saxophone throughout much of the song. The sax isn’t exactly something that the indie community hears too much of—ever.  The great thing about the Great Lakes sax is that is isn’t that awful Kenny G.-sounding business that you hear in the elevator at the mall. It’s got so much personality and heart that it feels as necessary to the song as the guitar and the drums. If nothing else they are bringing back the sax and making it cool again. I predict a fad in the near future and you can quote me on that.

Originally hailing from Georgia, the Great Lakes’ southern roots show up frequently in their songs. The bluegrass really begins to show itself on “The Moon and the Lunatics.” As they are currently residing in New York, their music has seen the effects of the flashy NY music scene. The synth and new wave influences are apparent here, which gives them a totally unique sound. The folksiness of their southern influences will always show through, though, because you can take the men out of the south but you can’t take the south out of the men, which in this case actually works to their advantage because it sets them apart from other synth rockers and folk rockers, ultimately leaving them with a sound that many people will be able to hear and immediately recognize as Great Lakes. Diamond Times is their masterpiece thus far. It isn’t such a far cry from their self-titled debut, but it sounds like they have found themselves as musicians and created a wonderful dynamic amongst themselves, resulting in a top notch album that’s happy but not sappy. I give it an A+ with a happy face.