Me and My Army
Thank god for sending demons
EMI
It was hard not to be intrigued by this album after reading that Me and My Army was made up not only of Andreas Kleerup, but members of Timo Räisänen's band. What I heard in my head when I read about Me and My Army was Kleerup making a guest appearance on Räisänen's "My valentine". This is not a good expectation to have going in. After the distinctly '80s-sounding opener, the band channel their inner Grateful Dead on the title track. This is not to disparage either Me and My Army or the Dead, but to emphasize the strange turns this album makes. There is a lot to like about "Thank god for sending demons", but very few of the album's highpoints have anything in common with the other standout moments: "Far, far away", with its fantastic female vocals and electro-pop sensibilities, feels very removed from the tracks surround it; "Chemicals" opens with Eagles-like swagger, tying it to some of the other Neil Young/'70s Americana-influenced tracks on, but distancing it from many of the other compositions. This album, while definitely worth a listen, is such a disparate collection of influences and attitudes that it is difficult to tell where the heart of the band lies. This is definitely a talented collection of musicians, but the album listens more like a soundtrack than a focused creative effort.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
