Singers combine for Enemy Mine

The singers' unique voices really define the tracks.

By Tom Carbone

Published March 12, 2009

What do Carey Mercer, Dan Bejar and Spencer Krug all have in common? You've probably never heard of them, but they are all lead singers of fairly notable indie rock bands. Of Frog Eyes, The New Pornographers and Wolf Parade respectively, these three unique songwriters are releasing Enemy Mine, their second full-length album under the recording moniker Swan Lake.

This second installment of their work features more stripped down tracks than their first album, Beast Moans.

Instead of fighting for vocal attention like they did for a lot of the last album, all three work a bit more cohesively this time around and each have a few of their own tracks on the album.

As the vocalists in their other respective bands, these three individuals all have insanely unique voices. While three vocalists would typically ruin the total clarity and solidarity of a record, these three actually take this quirk and turn it into something very positive and worth listening to. In an effort to get rid of the "literary" characterization they received so often with their last record, they named Enemy Mine after an '80s sci-fi thriller. The record isn't sci-fi, but it's damn thrilling.

"Paper Lace," the second track on the album, features a yelping Spencer Krug singing just like we're used to. They may have tried to get rid of their previous tags, but their lyrical content and song structure have both remained relatively static. The song, Krug's best on the album, is an upbeat, acoustic tune combined with his quirky vocals and lyrical content. "And when you're done crying to everyone/you can go back to your good home," he sings, over and over again. It's romance at its finest.

About halfway through the album comes Dan Bejar's best piece, "Battle of a Swan Lake, or, Daniel's Song." Bejar sounds more like he's writing a song for his solo project Destroyer here rather than a New Pornographers song, and it is fitting. Just like Krug, his distinct voice gives off a vibe that cannot be recreated by anyone else. Lyrically, Bejar again takes notes from his Destroyer days, as he tends to talk mostly about himself and things he sees on a daily basis.

"Peace," Carey Mercer's outstanding contribution to the album, sounds like it was just taken right out of a Frog Eyes recording session and slapped on the record -- and that's not a bad thing at all. Anyone familiar with Frog Eyes will immediately know what I'm talking about when I say that Mercer, like the other two guys in this project, has one of the more unconventional voices in all of music. He's able to use his voice like another instrument, and this track proves it well.

Despite a few notable changes in their sound, Swan Lake has returned this year with a record fans of Beast Moans will undoubtedly enjoy. All three of these songwriters really shine on Enemy Mine, each adding their own unique style and voice to the equation in order to create a super group record unlike any other artist on the scene.