''A Coliseum Complex Museum'' is the fifth studio album by the Canadian

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band The Besnard Lakes, released on January 22, 2016 on

Jagjaguwar Jagjaguwar is an American independent record label based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Jagjaguwar is a label included in Secretly Group, which also includes ...

. The album is the first to feature keyboardist Sheenah Ko and guitarist Robbie MacArthur, who both joined the band in 2014 to tour behind the band's previous album, '' Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO'' (2013). The album was preceded by the EP, ''Golden Lion'', which features two additional tracks recorded during the album's sessions.

Writing and composition

The album features shorter compositions than those on the band's previous two studio albums, '' Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO'' (2013) and '' The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night'' (2010). Regarding this, vocalist and guitarist

Jace Lasek Jace Lasek is a Canadian musician and producer living in Montreal. He and his wife Olga Goreas are the principal songwriters for the Montreal-based indie rock band The Besnard Lakes. Lasek plays guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. He is also the b ...

noted: "This lbumpulls us back in; we were curious to see if it was still possible for us to make something and be happy with it if things were a little more compact and condensed. It worked and it was super fun doing it as well."

Critical reception

Writing for ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'', Dave Mix was critical of the album's sameness, but called it "another impeccably crafted psychedelic rock record sure to please fans of the genre." In a mostly positive review for Pitchfork, Evan Rytlewski did, however, criticize the album for sounding too similar to its predecessors: "''Coliseum'' stacks everything in the right place, and it’s all executed with the usual precision, so why doesn’t the album dazzle quite like the last few? Like the four albums before it, the Besnards self-recorded and self-produced this one at Breakglass, and more than its predecessors, it begs for an outside collaborator, somebody to shake up the band’s routine and perhaps lend some new tricks to their shrinking playbook."

Track listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coliseum Complex Museum 2016 albums Jagjaguwar albums The Besnard Lakes albums