LAKE seem like a chipper lot, so I feel kinda bad calling out the title of their album as bullshit. The "let's" part I get-- the Olympia, Wash., group's second K Records LP is definitely a team effort, switching up between three complementary vocalists and they're on a label almost synonymous with community. But it's a major stretch to think about this remarkably sunny album soundtracking the construction of anything, let alone something intended to keep mother nature out.
Opener "Breathing" is certainly one for the beach chairs, a lulling piece of Pac-NW by way of Glasgow tunesmithery, but don't lose sight of how carefully it's composed. There's plenty going on, but it never feels like these instruments are fighting for space-- tambourines shake in and out of the mix, along with piano tones, acoustic strums, and glittering electric leads. It's indicative of LAKE's ability to sound simultaneously airy and earthy. Eli Moore's sleepy vocals deliver a catchy but subtly complex song, while Karl Blau's production lends a natural but never Spartan tidiness. Similarly, "Loose Wind" is gorgeous, threatening to drift off into the ether before a surprisingly clangorous bridge leads into one of Roof's many sumptuous horn charts.
But it's unfair to play these guys off as softies: "Sing 99 & 90" sports a deceptively rugged garage-rock arrangement to back up some clever back and forth between the vocals. A shroud of reverb surrounds the harmonies of exploratory midpoint "The Roof Caves In", before a strange, dissonant guitar riff leads it off the grid. Minutes later, "Remote Control Cars" is likely the slinkiest song ever written about camping, but even as an instrumental, it shows LAKE's ease with more soul-inflected sounds, working in the album's most buoyant horn chart.
Perhaps most impressive is how Let's Build a Roof traverses so much ground without making a big deal about it. Between the polyrhythmic "Gravel" and "Madagascar"'s sojourn into Margaritaville, it's amazing that LAKE never seem to be playing to the hackey-sack set. Similarly, closer "Christmas Island" cops a Camera Obscura feel without sounding derivative. So yeah, maybe Let's Build a Roof isn't a good indication of what to expect here: Oh, the Places We'll Go might've been the name of their last album, but it captures the playfulness and easygoing adventure of this outing as well.
