Review Round-Up: The Radio Dept. – ...
Posted April 29th by Anise in Europe, Music, Sweden, review round-up
Sweden is having a busy week here. First I mentioned the up-and-coming band Brotherhood of Broken Hearts, and now I am mentioning another great Swedish band a mere two days later. Last week, The Radio Dept. came out with a spectacular (and very well reviewed) album titled Clinging to a Scheme. Below you will find a collection of album reviews from several publications. You can also listen to the track, Heaven’s on Fire and view the whole album tracklist below:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tracklist:
01. Domestic Scene (02:25)
02. Heaven’s On Fire (03:32)
03. This Time Around (03:46)
04. Never Follow Suit (04:09)
05. A Token Of Gratitude (04:07)
06. The Video Dept. (03:25)
07. Memory Loss (04:17)
08. David (03:32)
09. Four Months In The Shade (01:50)
10. You Stopped Making Sense (03:54)
Review Round-Up for Clinging to a Scheme:
And there are plenty of pop moments, too. Fans of Phoenix will be right at home with the breezy Heaven’s on Fire, and Never Follow Suit comes across like a slowed down 90s dance classic turned into a catchy reggae jam lovers of lo-fi indie will be appeased by This Time Around and The Video Dept., the latter with a ping-pong beat. Perhaps most bizarre of all, though, is David – the track verges on sing-along hip hop, albeit Radio Dept. style
But it’s when this mysterious trio are at their most poignant that goose bumps prick the skin. Spectacular closer You Stopped Making Sense is Clinging to a Scheme’s ultimate tearjerker, all chiming guitars, glockenspiels and metallic-sounding distorted vocals leading a haunting melody and affecting lyrics “Don’t say goodbye…” begs singer Johan Duncanson towards the end of the track, and it’s as if a broken-hearted Cyberman is crooning his final lament. Someone give him a cuddle.
And as the curtain comes down on another superb Radio Dept. offering, months and years in the making, you’ve got to wonder: was it worth the wait? Oh, absolutely.
It’s been a weird four years for The Radio Dept since releasing their brilliant second album Pet Grief in 2006. That record was awash with lush, woozy textures – proto-chillwave if you will – but unlike the class of 2009, Radio Dept had the songs to back up their hazy soundscapes too. Since then the band has dropped off the radar, with only phantom album release-dates and a couple of disappointing singles to their name. But just when their moment seems to have passed the Dept re-opens with Clinging To A Scheme.
Four years is smoothed into nothing with opener ‘Domestic Scene’, which picks up where they left off, all low-key shoegazey textures and Strokes-y vocals. There’s no fanfare, no triumphant comeback sound – the big statements are left to samples, like the one that opens ‘Heaven’s On Fire’ – “I think we should destroy the bogus capitalist process that is destroying youth culture”. It voices the most interesting aspect of underground music in 2010, especially scenes like chillwave: the reigniting of DIY culture, with the bedroom the studio again, the cassette in vogue – a complete rejection of mainstream industry.
Whether by design or evolution, The Radio Dept’s third album fits the grand scheme of all things voguish and hazy rather perfectly – though that’s not to say they’ve made a faultless record, as ‘Clinging To A Scheme’ arguably hangs from just a few songs. ‘Heaven’s On Fire’ starts by sampling Thurston Moore urging the destruction of “the bogus capitalist process that is destroying youth culture”, an anarchistic sentiment wholly incongruous to the housey synth, gentle sexy P-funk and saxophone that skip double-Dutch throughout. The Radio Dept aren’t punks, they’re dreamy sweethearts who occasionally open their eyes to write majestic brilliance like ‘Never Follow Suit’, whose baggy Balearic beat could be cheesy were it not for their delicious Saint Etienne-like indolence. It’s a shame then that the rest of the record only teases with such promise, meandering around OMD hooks and submerged vocals without pushing them to the limits of their capabilities.
Pitchfork (The album was labeled as “Best New Music”)
As with their last two albums, Clinging to a Scheme stands to further expand the Radio Dept.’s cult. Economy has never been an issue for the band, but here, things are further tightened up: Clocking in at just 34 minutes, this album is their shortest and most finely-tuned yet, moving at a rapid clip while maintaining a sense of balance and even pacing– a pretty remarkable show of restraint and dedication for a record that has ostensibly been in the works for four years. (Their last full-length, Pet Grief, was released way back in 2006.) The improved fidelity helps, too: These songs sparkle with striking clarity in contrast to past works, while retaining all the glowing, sun-soaked ambiance that’s become a signature.
Call the Radio Dept. another unfortunate victim of this trend. Their earlier two efforts,Lesser Matters and Pet Grief, were instantly compared by salivating journa-clones to everyone from the cherished My Bloody Valentine to the Cocteau Twins to the effing Pet Shop Boys. Do the Radio Dept. really sound like these bands? That’s up to you. I say no, not really. But one thing’s clear, our Swedish friends are up to far more interesting work on their latest, Clinging to a Scheme, then just aping the nostalgic genres of ‘90s past.
To contact the author of this post e-mail: anise@offtheradio.com
Related posts:
