Familjen - Mänskligheten
(Adrian Recordings/Hybris)

The opening of Familjen's "Mänskligheten" was enough to give me pause. Here is one of my favorite Scandinavian electronic artists and an album I've been looking forward to for a little while now, and the first track sounds like a lazy, bedroom remix of a forgettable '90s techno track. Even with the outstanding "När planeterna stannat" following quickly after the trainwreck of an opener, a bad taste was left in my mouth as the album progressed. What has always attracted to me to Familjen is the songwriting, the indiepop playfulness embedded into the electronic framework. This is lacking from an artist like Kleerup, who is great in his own right, but approaches electronic music with more of an affinity for the mainstream. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this tact, it's just not what I've come to expect from Familjen after falling for "Det snurrar i min skalle". "Mänskligheten" -- with the exceptions of "När planeterna stannat", "Man ser det från månen", "Viggo", and "Det var jag", the standouts in my opinion -- could act as the soundtrack to a film set in Ibiza. Is "Mänskligheten" a bad album? By no means. It's just that the clever songwriting that sold me on "Det snurrar i min skalle" is mostly sitting in the passenger seat on this particular journey.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson