LAND OF TALK: SOME ART LAKES

LAND OF TALK: SOME ART LAKES

In mid-October, famed film critic Roger Ebert caused an Internet furor when he wrote and published a review of a movie of which he admitted he'd only watched the first eight minutes. I bring this up because I was sorely tempted to do the same after listening to the first few minutes of Some Are Lakes, the latest from Montreal band Land of Talk, and for much the same reason Ebert cited: It didn't take being exposed to the whole thing to know where it was going. However, I'm neither as famous nor as skilled as Ebert, so I felt honor-bound to listen to the whole album.

Well, I did, and I can report that the whole damn thing was as I feared: whiny, …