Now that everybody seems to be praising The National's new album as some sort of culmination of their career, I'd like to direct your attention to a similar case, albeit in a much more underground level. Not that this Swedish band's music has much in common with The National (it hasn't), but record after record, they have also been slowly gathering a cult-following that never ceases to increase.
Clinging To A Scheme is their most recent release in a career that started almost a decade ago, and they use those years of experience wisely: in other words, slowly progressing their sound into an idea of indie pop full of nostalgic feelings, to be heard by any special boy and girl out there during those cosy warm days and nights where one just wants to be hugged by music that speaks directly to our hearts.
Using loads of reverb doesn't hide the fact that these songs are just too damm perfect in all their dreamy intensity, pursuing a very specific ideal of beauty with plenty of evocative powers - some might even call it cinematic, others shoegazing. Like whispering incomplete sketches to be filled by anyone's imagination - and maybe that's why it reminds me so much of the seminal Handwriting by Khonnor -, each track has a quiet incandescent light that, metaphorically speaking, actually ends up blinding and melting all possible senses.
Soundtracking a misfit's dreams and making them seem like the most vital ones ever. I'm sure Donnie Darko would love it. (8/10)
The Radio Dept. - Heaven's On Fire (mp3 via Labrador)
theradiodept.com
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