This Danish band were formerly a quintet and are now down to a trio.
The slimmed down lineup means they were able to complete this, their third album, in less than a week which probably accounts for the fact that the record has a such a freshness and immediacy.
Minimalist they might be, but the arrangements are experimental enough to keep things interesting. There are plenty of swirling guitars and quirky sound effects and they are even relaxed enough to leave in the sound of a blackbird singing which was unintentionally captured on When You Smile.
Most of the songs have a hazy Californian glow with only the more direct final trackBreathe When You're Dead, sounding slightly less chilled.
Lasse Nielsen has a Danish accent and could pass for an American were it not for the unusual syntax of the lyrics. These betray the fact that English is not the band's first language.
Nothing is grammatically incorrect, they just use odd or more convoluted constructions. For instance, he sings "you'll be wrong when you aim at the point where you know what it is to feel sorry for someone" on The Place You Counted On and conjures up the curious image of "embracing love at each other's face" for Kathy.
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Nevertheless, they are not inhibited by this lack of total mastery of the language; far from it; Failures, Flaws, Regret And Remorse That Follow From Traditional Political Opportunism is a wordy title that establishes beyond doubt that the band are neither tongue-tied nor interested in simplistic boy meets girl ditties.
It is all offbeat and varied enough to keep the listener on his/her toes and so brimful of ideas that you just know there's plenty more where this came from.
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