IDENTITY

Interesting debut album by this band from Norway. I had this album for a long time but I didn´t exactly hear it propoerly until much recently. I guess the obvious indie pop tendencies of some tracks did not encourage me much to fully appreciated it at the time I got identity. However, at close escrutinity, there´s more than meets the eye: the instrumental of the album have a strong Pink Floyd influence that makes it much more listenable than most releases from groups like Radiohead or Coldplay for instance.

The music is really laid back, tranquil, sometimes reminding me of that swiss band Metamorphosis, specially their early stuff. The CD quite pleasant most of the time and I found it to be quite promising. Not anything to write home about it, but good anyway. There are no fillers and the songwriting in general shows they can go pretty far if they develop their formula. Asle Tostrup is a good singer, with a fine voice and a convincing delivering of the message. I just loved the keyboards parts (lots of quiet Hammond runs, much in the vein of the late Rick Wright). The guitar parts are also of notice (yes, you guessed it right: very Gilmour-like too), but they could be a little more on the forefront and if Bjørn Riis could be allowed to play more solos, it would be very nice!

All in all I see identity as a valid debut of a talented band. I´m really looking forqard to hear their next works. if they develop their progressive side a little more, they surely will come up with something remarkable. Not enought o warrant a 4 star rating this time, but Identity is a nice start. Promising!