Isolation Years
Sign, sign
NONS
This is the fourth record from one of Sweden's best kept secrets. On their first two, singer-songwriter Jakob Nyström, if never quite gloomy, sounded like a seeker out of place in the world around him, a status that lent a certain mystical magic to his already poignant vocal delivery and the band's unusual folky/psychedelic/rock sound. 2005's "Cover the distance" found them alternating that sound with cheer, and on this, their most consistent record, they sound almost (dare I say it?) happy. While touching on many of the same themes - Jesus, secularism, connection and lack of connection to place and people - this time around it's poppy and even bouncy throughout. There are no jaw-droppingly magnificent tracks like "Hemisphere" (from 2001's "Inland traveller") and it's no artistic stretch, but it's Isolation Years all the way, which is to say it's a solid, tuneful, beautiful piece of jangly folky rock that sounds like no one else.
- Nancy Baym
