Label: Adrian Recordings
Viewing posts
76-81 out of
81
6
I must be honest, I've never heard much from Emil Jensen before, but I feel this to be a good introduction to his music. With five tracks in under twenty minutes, it's nothing too straining on my ever-shortening attention span. The EP kicks off with the title track, which is quite a catchy little number. However, the second and third tracks tend to simmer a bit before the real gems of the release - the two remixes. Both tracks are by far the out-and-out standouts of the album and gets one hoping that in the future, Mr. Jensen's remix foray will lead to proper collaborations.
- Matt Giordano
Mmmm. Pretty, accessible atmospheric Swedish sounds, the type of music you would enjoy if pumped into your favourite licensed hideaway while lingering over a latte or White Russian. Opening track "Ivanhoe O Rebecka" is particularly well-suited to this. By track two, however, you feel you've been dragged up the street to the trendy, chi-chi venue where cocktails and fancy footwear are required. Track three, "Hon är fin", is a welcome return to relaxation, only to be followed by a space-age exercise in keyboard and drum machine tweakings that will have you staring into your hot cocoa in a trance, looking to the melting marshmallows for the meaning of life. A mixed bag, really, but worth rifling through if you're looking for some novel new electropop.
- Stacey Shackford
Two years after "...Presents the Electric Pavilion," Gustav Kjellvander has grown substantially not in only songwriting, but in performance, and his new album is proof of this (and perhaps the numerous drug references, as Avi mentioned earlier, has propelled his growth). Gone is the distorted theremin and static tracks on every song, to be replaced instead by horns and keyboards. "Radiola" finds The Fine Arts Showcase much more focused on songsmith and story and provides a more cohesive record. Lucid tracks such as "Brother in black" and the single "Chemical girl" set the listener in space, with Gustav's narrative guiding the listener through a hazed dusk. The three instrumentals on the album break it up quite well, with the introductory title track setting for the three songs to follow. "Part II" is a fitting transition between the aforementioned "Brother in black" and could-be-Electric-Pavilion track "Frida and I" (albeit if this song had appeared on the TFAS debut, it would be one of the stronger tracks). The last segue track, "Anna and the moon" is a take on "Amazing Grace" and provides a relaxing moment before the big band beat of "Spanish kerosene." Although a little on the short side (thirteen tracks in thirty-five mintues), "Radiola" is a great second record for TFAS, and thus far is one of the best new records to be released in this young year.
- Matt Giordano
Sharif, the first band ever signed to Adrian Recordings, has just released its second album--six years after its first. The Malmö group has clearly had its ups and downs, something reflected in the fragility of its compositions. The blend of mid-tempo and slower songs on "Lost causes, causes lost" benefit from simple, stark arrangements that allow world-weary vocals to make the biggest impression. For example, the spare acoustic guitar part on "E.A.A. (Eagerly awaiting anytime)" heightens the melancholy of lyrics like, "Could it be you're afraid/of the words you think I'll say?" The distorted vocals and bells on the woozy "Ordinary" bear a resemblance to Sparklehorse, while the jazzy instrumental "Glow in the dark" shows versatility, but strays too far from the album's mournful simplicity. That's the nearest thing I can find to a low point on this album because its well-constructed songs are more impressive with each listen. With understated melodies wrapped around lines like, "there's no such thing as personal freedom/it's all just part of a game," the second effort by Sharif comes highly recommended. John, Rikard, Magnus and Johan deserve a lot of praise for this record--and hopefully it won't be six more years before they make another.
- Matthew W. Smith
If you like David & the Citizens I shall hereby save you a minute or two by informing you that David Fridlund's solo album sounds like David & the Citizens and it's as good. So stop reading and go and buy it now, thank you very much. For all you other people who have never heard David & the Citizens, here you go:
It seems to be quite a trend to release solo albums lately in Sweden, but whereas usually these solo outings take on a completely different form than how the artist's band sounds like (e.g. Fireside's Kristofer Åström, International Noise Conspiracy's Dennis Lyxzen's Last Patrol, or Millencolin's Nikola Sarcevic), David's solo album sounds in fact quite a lot like a D&tC's first album (only a bit slower and less energetic). Even though it would have been interesting with an album that sounded completely different from D&tC, "Amaterasu" is so good that one quickly forget the initial disappointment and such before mentioned speculations, because by calling this just "another D&tC album" what that really equals is "another excellent album."
Another expectation on solo albums is of course for the lyrical content to deal with more personal issues, but if you've heard D&tC you know that their lyrics hardly can be any more personal and intimate. It should also be said that David Fridlund writes excellent lyrics and often manages to come up with lines that cunningly drill themselves into your brain, set root, and refuse to leave (such as "Rub your allergic eyes and look at me" from "Satellite", which is one of the best songs on the album). In the beginning of their career numerous people compared D&tC to Bright Eyes, and that comparison is still valid although "Amaterasu" is not as angst-driven as most of Bright Eyes' material. It's also a quite long album, but it's so varied it hardly ever becomes repetitive, but it's not really amazingly accessible either and it took quite a few listenings before I really got into it.
- Simon Tagestam
I really want to like Emil Jensen. I want to be able to sit there with a glass of red wine, look out the window, and listen to the lyrics and dream away. I want to like this album so much, because I know my mom would love it and that way we would have something to talk about. This is not a bad album; it's just an album my 50 year old, state employed, divorced mother would like. With that said, Emil is very talented, seriously, look at his website for all the stuff he has done, and at least I know what I am getting my mom for Christmas.
- Per Appelqvist
Emil Jensen
Familjen
The Fine Arts Showcase
Sharif