You'll find the real Besnard Lake in the heart of upper Saskatchewan, where it is fed by the Mercier River.

You'll find the musical Besnard Lakes at the centre of the white-hot Montreal music scene -- but the source of their expansive, epic sound is much further afield.

On their ambitious sophomore album The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse, the band -- led by the husband-and-wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas -- draw on a wide-ranging host of influences to concoct their intoxicating psychedelic orch-pop.

Some songs feature falsetto vocals and dense harmonies clearly inspired by Brian Wilson at his trippiest. Others have the shadowy, reverberating decadence and icy vocals of The Velvets with Nico. Still others boast the molasses pacing, nimble basslines and piercing guitar solos of classic Pink Floyd.

Topped with enigmatic lyrics about spies, secret agents, war, devastation and betrayal -- and fleshed out with contributions from assorted Dears and Stars and Godspeeders and Doughboys -- it all flows together into a massively powerful, luxuriously tense soundscape fueled by undercurrents of Lynchian menace.

We wouldn't want to live there, but it sure is a hell of a place to visit.

Track Listing:

1. Disaster
2. For Agent 13
3. And You Lied to Me
4. Devastation
5. Because Tonight
6. Rides the Rails
7. On Bedford and Grand
8. Cedric's War