Bodies and Minds

Great Lake Swimmers return with a warm second album, Bodies and Minds, filled with songs of heartbreak, rural nostalgia, and the search for spiritual transcendence. The album picks up where Great Lake Swimmers' critically-acclaimed 2003 debut left off, featuring gentle, thoughtful compositions and understated instrumentation, while also moving fluidly into alt-country pop territory with sweet harmonies, light orchestration, and even a few up-tempo numbers. (Think Mark Kozelek playing Neil Young, or the delicate Nick Drake delivered with the heart of Gram Parsons.) Bodies and Minds was recorded in a lakeside church in rural southern Ontario, continuing the emphasis on atmosphere from the debut album (which was recorded in an abandoned grain silo). Engineered by Andy Magoffin (Constantines, Royal City) and mixed at his celebrated House of Miracles, the record has a sparkle and shimmer that is due in part to the cavernous surroundings in which it was captured. Outside Music. 2005. * No US releases scheduled until August 2005.