Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

1. Spanish Gold, 2044 

2. Paper Lace 

3. Heartswarm 

4. Settle on Your Skin 

5. Ballad of a Swan Lake, or, Daniel’s Song 

6. Peace 

7. Spider 

8. A Hand at Dusk 

9. Warlock Psychologist

For lack of a better word, this album is more cohesive and less a mash-up of three different styles than 2006's Beast Moans. What we, have here is instead a band with three lyricists and vocalists working together on the same thing interweaving, rather than throwing against a wall, their vocals and musical styles so we get Krug's dissonant pop with Mercer's wild despair and Bejar's warbling nonsense. On the track's opener, Mercer takes the lead and delivers what could be a straight up Frog Eyes track but without his wife's chaotic drumming. "Paper Lace" gets both Bejar's nonsense through Jackie's return and shines through the lyrics, I think, while Mercer handles the vocal duties only for Bejar to come back with a slow not-quite piano ballad that's almost entirely a Destroyer track stylistically. Arrgh, without linear notes, it's hard to know who's responsible for what and when but regardless the trio leave you with a record that is distinctly all of them individual and possessing a rawness that has been sorely lacking in some of their other projects.