Great Lakes

***GREAT LAKES emerged from Athens, GA roughly two decades ago, but the band led by singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist BEN CRUM has been based in Brooklyn since 2002. Formed in 1996, Great Lakes was initially part of the Elephant 6 Collective. The band's 2000 debut, mixed by Apples in Stereo honcho Robert Schneider, owed much to the psychedelic pop of the '60s, as did the band's second album, The Distance Between. 2006’s Diamond Times for Empyrean Records, however, offered a significant stylistic progression. Drifting away from the psychedelic milieu, the band's sound took on country and folk leanings, with “Farther” reminiscent of both Wilco’s and Teenage Fanclub's more straight-ahead moments. With the band's 6th album, Dreaming Too Close to the Edge, Great Lakes return with a record that feels both like a natural progression from Ways of Escape and Wild Vision and hearkens back a bit to the band's earlier work. It's a fitting end to an album that, despite its varied styles, is a consistent expression of Crum's ever-evolving songwriting voice, and offers a hint as to the singer's worldview: "seek no one's blessing… there is no lesson." (STREET DATE - 4/06/2018)