Swan Lake's "Enemy Mine"

I just illegally downloaded (gasp no! really!?) the new Swan Lake album "Enemy Mine" and gave it a listen over. Already from a first listen I can tell it's a lot better than their first album "Beast Moans"; however, considering that that album was a pretty terrible mess of "hey I'll just play when I feel like it and maybe you can sing when you want", I guess that's not saying much.

It irks me that an indie super group like Swan Lake can't seem to make one solid album. "Beast Moans" had select tracks here and there that were very good but on a whole just couldn't seem to feel like a coherent set of songs. Not to mention some of the tracks were pretty terrible on their own. "Enemy Mine" feels more like a set of songs that belong together; it feels like they tried a bit more at sequence and transition and song order, but it still feels quite messy and forced. Once again, certain songs triumph individually (see opener "Spanish Gold, 2044", plus "Peace", and "Settle Your Skin"), while others just really seem to die in my iTunes library ("Spider" for example).

I still feel like Swan Lake's problem is that all the different members force feed their musical style and genres onto the other members. We've got some intense Sunset Rubdown references, mushed with New Pornographers barely making it in, finishing with a topping of Frog Eyes meets Destroyer. I think this new album is already a drastic improvement as far as working out their musical differences goes; it sounds like they tried some new things to bring it all together. Which is great, because I'm expecting them to do something really awesome some day.

Download for individual tracks, not for the entire show.