Great Lake Swimmers - Ongiara

If this were your musical SAT, your first question might read: Just as David Bazan is to Pedro the Lion, so Tony Dekker is to who? The correct answer would be "Great Lake Swimmers." Dekker serves as the principal songwriter and vocalist for the Canadian folk/rock lite trio that has enlisted an impressive amount of help for Ongiara, the group's third full-length effort.

For the unfamiliar, some common comparisons would include a touch of Sufjan Stevens, Red House Painters and Iron & Wine, although Iceland's Without Gravity probably stands the closest in line. With Ongiara, Dekker has embraced the Canadian landscape around him to derive word pictures for the journey of life with all its peaks and valleys.

"Your Rocky Spine" begins with bluegrass banjo before giving way to Dekker's subdued vocal singing clever lines like: "Put your soft fingers between my claws/ Like purity against resolve." The tune starts as a high point for what is mostly a melancholy effort. "Changing Colours" features Dekker's whispering vocal descending into valleys, declaring "where the wind takes you, it takes me, too." Meanwhile, "Where In The World Are You" finds Dekker amidst solo acoustic guitar and slight violin noting, "And I thought that I saw you in the tallest of trees/ Swayed back and forth in the mid-autumn breeze/ When the leaves reddened and left too/ I knew then that it wasn't you." Over and over, the beauty of literal Creation being used as relational analogies only enhance the soothing, wistful backdrop.

With fellow Canadians like Sarah Harmer and Owen Pallett helping on background vocals and strings respectively, Dekker, along with bandmates Erik Arnesen and Colin Huebert, has placed the music in very capable hands. Great Lake Swimmers have released one of the most poetic releases of 2007 and Ongiara will undoubtedly end up on various "Best Of..." lists by year's end.