Graham Wright

<i>The Lakes of Alberta</i>

BY Cam LindsayPublished Nov 19, 2008

Tokyo Police Club have had a pretty monumental year. They released their debut album, Elephant Shell, made the cover of Exclaim!'s April issue, headlined Exclaim!'s 16th Anniversary Tour, not to mention toured the world over a few times, and even made it onto Desperate Housewives, the true pinnacle of a young band's career.

Surprisingly, keyboardist Graham Wright found time to write, record and whip up a neat little EP in his spare time. Yep, the "one with the glasses," who once spent his time blogging for Exclaim! about America's toilets, has become the first member to officially release something outside of the band, though judging by the amount of acoustic gigs front-man Dave Monks has done, I can imagine more will pop up some time soon.

Through an interesting site called Bandcamp.mu, Wright has released/posted The Lakes of Alberta, a completely acoustic slice of Canadiana recorded at Toronto's Chemical Sound Studios, which dedicates itself to, you guessed it, the province. In fact, the very first line of the record is "I wanted to kiss you at Lake Lousie, it was calm, it was cool, it was still in the breeze." Yeah, it's very much that kind of record: warm, huggy and filled with pulled heartstrings.

But it's also filled with all sorts of scandal! Yes, it appears that all of this Desperate Housewives business has completely gone to his head. In "Medicine Hat," Mr. Wright, or at least a character he's written, finds himself bedding a married woman who while asleep, is being called on her cell by her husband. A similar thing happens in "The Lakes of Alberta, Pt. 1," where again, he's all into this married gal, finishing the song with "You'd leave your husband and we'd drive across the country." And then in "Canmore Hotel," the story continues, or at least a story that could be the sequel does, where in the middle of a bar brawl, Wright is drunk and writing a letter to his love about what it would be like to get married for $92.

Of course, The Lakes of Alberta is much cheaper than that: free of charge for a 128k download, or $5 if you're interested in upgrading to 320k, AAC High, FLAC, Apple Lossless, etc.

Or you can just listen to it below, which takes even less effort.

The Lakes of Alberta tracklisting:

1. "The Lakes of Alberta, pt II"
2. "Medicine Hat"
3. "Canmore Hotel"
4. "The Lakes of Alberta, pt I"
5. "When I Get There"

Latest Coverage