Artist: Lakes
Album: Photographs EP
Label: The Militia Group
Tracks: 5
Length: 20:44
Review by: Jacob Gehman

I have been avoiding this review like the plague. While I don’t want to sound like a complainer, I do feel like the reason of avoiding it should be mentioned. The pre-release, a burn from The Militia Group, works great for two tracks. Once you try to access tracks 3-5 whatever you use to listen to music freezes up. So I have no way to find out how great or not so great those three songs are.

Lakes is what appeared when the ashes of Watashi Wa cleared away. The end of Watashi Wa seemed messy, what with internet rumors spreading like wildfire. Whatever the case, we now have Lakes and life is starting to look up again.

“Indian Lover,” the first song on the EP, is a great rock pop track with a pretty good chorus. It starts off with the ring of well-controlled feedback and morphs into a nice acoustic guitar. In the last third of the song some big U2 influences threaten to tear the track apart, but are reigned in enough to keep it from dominating. It is the sort of song that works best when you don’t think about it too much. The second you start to think about things like repetition or originality the effect becomes greatly dampened.

“Love or Gain” follows that up with a fairly similar style, only with edgier guitars. Again, the chorus hits you as being extremely catchy. This one has the possibility of lighters coming out during live shows, what with the frequent mentions of “America” and “dreams.” The same weaknesses apply, sans the U2. “Love or Gain” actually works better, and it may provide a good catapult into the last three tracks of the EP.

If the rest of the tracks stick fairly closely with the sound of tracks one and two, then past fans of Watashi Wa should find this a safe, satisfying buy. For people who like the pop rock realm of music, check out some sound clips and see what you think. Chances are, at the EP price, Lakes will be a good discovery.