LAKE – CIRCULAR DOORWAY
(K Records)
By ISSAC SCOTT
LAKE assembles a cabal of talented players for laid back, vintage-sounding grooves in what is arguably most quintessentially Olympia band imaginable. Nearing a decade since their first release, Circular Doorway shows that the quartet has settled comfortably into their offbeat pop rock sound. Today their pastel twee style essentially defines the contemporary K Records aesthetic: unrelentingly mellow and cultishly familial. Here, the tunes contain the refreshing pleasantness of an easy breeze, but with a gentle undercurrent of bittersweetness that allows for emotional depth.
Circular Doorway benefits from the combined experiences of LAKE’s members, all of whom are tremendously active in other projects. Singer and keyboardist Ashley Erikson has a successful solo career, and her song “No Wonder I,” which forms a focal point of this album, garnered notoriety when it was featured in an episode of Adventure Time. Drummer Andrew Dorrsett also plays in the great math rock band Fall of Electricity with Ross Cowman (June Madrona/Bicycle Records). Markly Morrison is phenomenal in his spectacularly bizarre karaoke solo-project Skrill Meadow.
