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When you’re a music geek, there are few moments more enthralling than getting to listen to a new record by a band you’ve loved for years. (Erm, or so I’ve heard?) Twelve years ago, I fell in love with Club 8‘s sophomore full-length, Friend I Once Had, and I’ve been with them for the ride ever since–not only watching their output metamorphose from the twee indie-pop of their debut into the confident, decadent sound of 2007′s The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Dreaming, but also going head over heels for their Swedish labelmates like The Mary Onettes, The Radio Dept., and Sambassadeur.
On May 18th, Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård will release their seventh LP as Club 8, the provocatively-titled The People’s Record, via the only label they’ve ever recorded for, Stockholm’s Labrador Records. Both members have deep ties throughout Sweden’s impressive indie scene: Komstedt was the vocalist of seminal Swedish indie-pop act Poprace, while Angergård was one of the founding members of (and still writes and performs with) The Acid House Kings. Angergård is also the man behind The Legends’ three labels and provides a pair of the helping hands which help keep the Labrador organization running.
The People’s Record opens with “Western Hospitality,” a song that is about as pure a celebration of music as you’re likely to hear in quite some time. Shades of bossa nova, French chanson, and Ghanaian highlife are all in evidence, wrapped around a rapidly-plucked electric guitar riff, a sea of percussion, and Komstedt’s characteristic, sweetly-accented vocals. It is about as pan-global a musical stew as you can get, but what really sets “Western Hospitality” apart is the ease with which Club 8 mix these elements into a coherent, original whole. The song also represents a fairly radical departure from the band, trading in the sense of rainy melancholy which has been a calling card of much of the mid-section of their career in favor of an ecstatic sonic dance. I’m certainly no impartial observer, but it is apparent to me that the daring maneuver works–after all, if long-time fans can eagerly welcome an expanded generic ken, chances are new listeners will enjoy it, too.
(52 votes, average: 8.25 out of 10)
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February 20th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Wow, you weren’t kidding about the radical departure. As a long time fan of Club 8 myself, I find this song on the brink of something that could easily head the wrong way, however, remains enjoyable. I’m not entirely sold on this new sound yet, but am excited to see what the rest of the record holds.
February 28th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
beautiful percussive single!