Great Lakes - Wild Vision (2016)

2016 release, the fifth long-player from Great Lakes, who formed in 1996 in Athens, Georgia and have been based in Brooklyn, NY since 2002. For this album, singer/songwriter/guitarist Ben Crum reconvened the same stellar lineup of musicians who helped him make 2010's enchanting Ways of Escape, including vocalist Suzanne Nienaber, drummer Kevin Shea, bassist David Lerner and keyboardist Joe McGinty. Once again, the album was mixed by Steve Silverstein. While Great Lakes' early records traded in a whimsical, light-hearted psychedelia, with their third and fourth albums, 2006's Diamond Times and 2010's Ways of Escape, the band gradually gravitated toward more personal songs, with a darker tone. Wild Vision attempts to blend the bare emotional style of 1970s singer/songwriter records with a guitar-based psychedelia.