(Tapete Records)

Sounding pleasant only gets you so far

Swedish indie balladeers The Grand Opening are up to their second full-length and it’s a mellow but reasonable listening experience, comparable in style to our own Art Of Fighting. This is chockful of soft, sensitive ballads and their style, while pleasant, is the kind of music that can quickly fade into the background if not done right. There’s no real hooks to be found, little to wake your ears from their relaxed but ultimately uninvolved stupor. The tempo and style never seems to change and this is a real problem. It’s not until the seventh track Chainbreak that the album seems to find any momentum and even then it’s minimal. The songwriting is competent but the music fails to engage. That said there are still things to enjoy about the album. Roger Olsson’s voice is strong, the production is very clean and there isn’t really an aspect of the album that could be described as bad. It’s just all rather … uneventful.

MICHAEL PINCOTT

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