Great Lakes Myth Society reviewed
Great Lakes Myth Society
Compass Rose Bouquet
(Quack)
Nobody’s complaining, but with the purging of the Old Town School vaults, a separate Folksongs Of Illinois collection, and Sufjan Stevens’ treatises on Illinois and Michigan, the region might be overexposed.
Appearing: July 27th at Martyrs’ in Chicago.
Luckily the Mitten State’s Great Lakes Myth Society aren’t about to fill our ears with minutiae on their second album, Compass Rose Bouquet. And while they do share chamber folk sensibilities with Stevens and The Decemberists, GLMS’s palette is much broader. So broad, in fact, sweeping catch-alls like Big Country locked up in a UP cabin while reinventing the Fairport Convention songbook still don’t suffice. Greg McIntosh’s “March” seems destined to be shouted across the Scottish highlands or maybe the Smoky Mountains. James Monger, just the second of a three-headed songwriting beast, steps onto “Midwest Main Street” with a head full of Matthew Sweet and XTC, stamping cigarettes out on every Rockwell painting he sees. Maybe it should be a myth *breaking* society. But whatever. More Upper Midwest, please!
— Steve Forstneger
Click here to download “Across The Bridge” from Great Lakes’ self-titled debut.
