Swan Lake

Few bands look as good on a press release as Swan Lake. After all, they are a super-trio boasting three of Canada's most celebrated indie songsmiths: Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes) and Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown). Yet, on record, Swan Lake can be quite the tough sell, or at least that's the case on their second collaborative bro-down, Enemy Mine. Like their Beast Moans debut, album two is sharply divided into Bejar tracks, Mercer tracks and Krug tracks. And while this doesn't yield the most cohesive of records, the real problem is that Enemy Mine rarely leaves a lasting impression. Too often, the album's dissonant slabs of abstract rock feel as if they're meant to simply satisfy the band rather than the listener, offering few hooks, pay-offs or anything at all pleasing to the ear. There are exceptions to the tuneless sludgery, such as touching Bejar ballad "Heartswarm" and Mercer's big-building "Peace" anthem, but compared to Swan Lake's debut, Enemy Mine is an album only a diehard could love.