(Lost And Lonesome/MGM)

Norwegian saccharine pop. Those three words are enough.

In a rare display, just for something special, I’m not going to spend much time on exposition today. Somewhat because I don’t feel like wasting a word count discussing insignificant minutiae when the music’s so good, but mainly because there was stuff all available. From what I can extract, they’re a five-piece (although the drummer joined after this album was completed) that met while at an English art school in 2004, connected by their mutual love of classic jangly ‘60s pop and sonic explorers like My Bloody Valentine and Phil Spector. Oh, and they recorded this debut album in an old community hall in the deepest woodland of Norway, clocking up an impressive 13 songs in seven days. And on the eighth day they rested, said ‘yah, yah!’ and pined for the fjords, presumably. Elin Grimstad’s charmingly fractured pronunciation of English lyrics is delivered with punch, with subject matter ranging from Edgar Allen Poe murder mysteries to psychedelic traveling. Instrumentation-wise, there’s all manner of trippy freakouts, backwards guitars and keyboards that sound somewhere between the Nuggets compilations and Madchester. There’s moments of pure ethereal beauty and songs that are about as furious as you could get in Norway without painting your face white and praying to the sun god or something.. And on a number of tracks (most notable It’s Love), you get both! From what I can tell, this album finally reaching Australia is the only benefit of globalisation. Well, that and digital piracy.

****

MITCH ALEXANDER

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