Pineforest Crunch - Panamarenko
(Zip)
The Swedish Invasion continues with the third album (and domestic debut, although the songs were recorded over three years ago) from this seven-year old, twee pop band, who are as light and airy as the Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor they are named after. Gorgeous, waif-like vocalist, Åsa Eklund (not Britt's kid) has a sweet, lilting soprano akin to such other helium-voiced warblers as Saint Etienne's Sarah Cracknell, Drugstore's Isobel Monteiro, Cranes' Alison Shaw and, especially, The Sunday's Harriet Wheeler. Since these are amongst the finest voices in rock and roll, the band already scores brownie points based on their biggest asset. Luckily, the songs aren't half bad, either. Since my alter ego is a college DJ, the anthemic singalong (and lead single) "College Radio Listeners" is a personal favorite, although listeners should note that the music throughout this release is best suited to the Gilmore Girls and Dawson's Creek soundtracks.
Elsewhere, "Slowly" packs an emotional wallop into its three-minute pop song trappings, particularly with its interesting percussive effects; Åsa's ethereal, breathy vocals on "Wake Up" border on soft core ear porn, and she imbues "Car Crash" with such an oxymoronic, uplifting, happy air that I bet she could make reading an obituary sound sexy. The chorus to "Innocent" is so infectious it should be investigated by the Center for Disease Control, as it will surely be on the minds and lips of every teeny bopper around the world as one of the summer's biggest hits, and "Romantic Strings" is also an unusually arranged and produced piece that sounds like a show tune being played back through a radio. It's a pleasant enough melody, but the presentation leaves this listener as cold and aloof as a Scandinavian winter.
So, while it's nothing you haven't heard before, it is certainly recommended to fans of lightweight pop in the style of the aforementioned bands. Hopefully, Zip will bring us their earlier releases in the near future.
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