POPLAR MUSIC

If you visit the Bandcamp page you will discover that they have tagged this album as "10CC, Beatles, pop, progressive rock, art rock, Beach Boys, Beatlesque, classic rock, Electric Light Orchestra, ELO, mellotron, power pop, prog, vocal harmonies", and I reckon that they've pretty much got it right. This is the second album from the Swedish trio and it was released in February this year, although there has already been another since then which I have yet to hear. The band themselves are Mikael Sandström (electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, accordion, pedal steel), Stefan Olofsson (vocals, keyboards, zither, guitar, bass, percussion) and Peter Olofsson (drums), and I am sure that the spelling of the first word in the album title is quite deliberate and nothing to do with language confusion, as in many ways this makes me thinks back to the heady days of the Seventies and the music from Laurel Canyon.

This definitely has as much to do with the psychedelic scene as it does with the prog, lashings of harmonies and great hooks make this a pop album that is just a joy from start to finish. I have been listening to quite a lot of music recently that has been hard work and has required many plays before I have been able to really get inside what was going on, but that definitely isn't the case here as this album is like a breath of fresh air as it just bounces around Americana and brings a smile to the face of the listener. Sometimes you just don't want to wade through 'Ware and Peace' and need something far more lightweight that doesn't take the work, and that is the case here. One for the Summer. www.dynamobliss.com