Family Average: 4/7

Hello this is Makthaverskan, and these are their Demands. Do not worry their demands are nothing scary or threatening. No, not at all. They want you to hear their sounds. Maybe dance a little bit, but totally up to you. I personally think you should dance. Have you ever seen Morris Dancers? What about Morrissey Dancing? Both are a bit hypnotic. Anyway on to the reviews!

Listen along on Spotify and read on to find out:

Considering most of the pop music I've heard come out of Sweden is pure bubblegum, this album was a dark horse. It's a stunning cocktail of dreamy indie pop, with a bit of shoegaze, punk, and a '90s feel thrown in. With that bright jangly opening guitar and wailing kind of vocals, it all feels dramatic and immediate. The lead singer’s voice sort of pummels you over a mix of fuzz pedals and dominant hi-hats, completely driving the track. I drew parallels Jesus and the Mary Chain and Alvvays -- bands with a knack for layering texture and creating a sort of visceral experience through the emotive vocals. I even likened the singer to Blondie (kinda), but with a bit more grit due to the lamenting, darker quality. It just beautifully toes the line between that light, dreamy indie pop sound and that heavier post-punk noise.

I'm also never going to be able to pronounce their name -- a slight problem because this band is a major discovery for me and will be put on my playlist rotation. I shall instead refer to them as that dark indie pop Swedish band. Just,  ya know, FYI.

5/7

Got a beachy guitar to start it off, then the rest of the instruments come crashing in and it’s a party. Good mix of punk and lo-fi. Kinda reminded me of King of the Beach by Wavves. It’s got that messy energetic vibe to it. But in contrast to that song it has a distorted, dreamy reverb. You can particularly hear it in the bass. The vocals were hit or miss. When they’re more lower and more tamed, it almost sounds like Cyndi Lauper. But when it gets loud it can be kinda grating. It loses its melody and sounds more like just plain shouting, as if she’s yelling to be heard over the instruments.

Even though the song is relatively short, it could have done with a bit more variation. Maybe it’s just my attention span but halfway through I felt like it was repeating itself. The instruments all start to blend in with each other and end up hidden behind the singer. I dunno maybe it just got too messy for my taste.

While it’s not something I’d actively seek out again, I can understand the appeal and appreciate the energy.

3/7

Yeah... so this song is good. It has like this indie, psychedelic guitar riff to start off that reminds me of a song that Wes Anderson would put in his movies. Then as that riff kinda melds into the background the sound of the song turns into this like dream-pop/shoegaze song with the vocals and the rest of the band.

The vocals has this like whiny, shouty sound that accompanied with the reverb made me really just enjoy it. I don’t know maybe that’s like a guilty pleasure in music for me since I love whiny vocals, and this band does not skrimp on it. I never got a full grasp of what the lyrics were, but for me it didn’t really matter. The melodies created by all of the pieces together made the song really enjoyable.

I mean I don’t really have a wealth of technical knowledge in music to delve deeper into why I liked this song, but it just reminded me of like a mix between pop-punk, shoegaze, and dream-pop. It’s a really good song that’s easy to get into.

4/7

Heaven helps me when I recommend this band out at parties. That is just going to be an awkward situation. Ah whatever that will not stop me from flaunting these fellas.

Before I getting too far into talking about this whole music thing they do I have something else I want to point out. That thing is their wickedly consistent art style throughout all their releases. Each album has this same black and white kind of tattoo ink drawing. Another band that does this quite well is Cigarettes After Sex. It creates this sort of branding that the band can align with.

Okay spent a little too much time on that, but we are in it now. The music that is. Starts with shimmery guitar plucking along. The rest of the band comes crashing in, and through the noise comes these reverb-soaked vocals. Heavy reverb soaking, we are talking damp. We are talking Beach House damp. Appropriate for this kind of dreamy pop land.

In between all the head shaking, and foot stomping the music touches on this frustration on never being sure who to believe. It made me want to go back and rewatch some old X-Files episodes.

Its reverb, it's dreamy, it's jangly, I like it.

4/7