'The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings' Is Absurdly Maximalist Published Jan 27, 2021 7 Pop quiz: how many of the Besnard Lakes' first five albums are double LPs? Appreciators of the Montreal outfit's maximalist psych-rock voyages may answer something like "three" or "four," which, while plausible, would be completely wrong. For all their orchestral ambition, previous efforts have never hit the 50-minute mark, managing to pack full worlds of instruments, concepts and atmosphere into a single slab of wax. They finally give in to impulse on epic-as-it-sounds The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings, which stretches nine tracks across an 72-minute meditation on death, dying and the afterlife. It's a weighty, demanding listen, but the band's 18-year history has given them plenty of experience that helps them pull it off in classic Besnard Lakes style.