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Loney Dear - Dear John
Emil Svanangen's Loney Dear project has always beguiled. Committed to indulgent experimentation and on blurring the boundaries between introspective folk intimacy and circling synth pop, Loney Dear has always been the vehicle for some exhilarating moments of leftfield intelli-pop that settle comfortably between the disparate stools of Kraftwerk and The Flaming Lips.
Pitched as the concluding paragraph in this particular chapter of Loney Dear's creative life, 'Dear John' takes on a level of anticipation rarely reserved for Svanangen's previous releases. But how exactly will the big Scandinavian set about rounding off such a wilfully experimental project and provide it with the big, bold and ambitious full-stop it so evidently deserves? Simple. By taking the most inspirational moments from the previous four albums, breathing new life into them and sprinkling them liberally over the length and breadth of this exceptional new album.
The bar for 'Dear John' is set exceptionally high with the album's opening track. Typically Loney Dear, 'Airport Surroundings' is a huge slab of spiralling synth excess that jack-hammers its way into your sub-conscious. Whether it's Emil's childlike 'nah-nah-nahs', that throbbing, relentless drum machine or those clinical, synthesized beats, 'Airport Surroundings' gets under your skin and electrifies your senses. From there on in there's rarely a duff moment in sight. 'Summers' is a sparkling jolt of Svanangen's magic (that bares more than a passing resemblance to 'Saturday Waits'), 'I Got Lost' finds Andrew Bird adding a violin passage that aches with introspection, whilst 'Distant' is a dark and bombastic slice of electrified perfection that builds into an apoplectic club monster.
One after another the songs come; each more enchanting and life-affirming than the last. Each responsible for etching the name 'Loney Dear' deeper and deeper into the fabric of this particular scribes long-overloaded memory. With 'Dear John', Emil Svanangen has concluded the Loney Dear chapter with such brilliance and unadulterated perfection that it touches ever so slightly on genius. The one question that remains.... where on earth does Emil go from here?
'Dear John' is released on 2nd March 2009 through Parlophone.
Words: Jacob Spencer
Official Site: www.loneydear.com
Pitched as the concluding paragraph in this particular chapter of Loney Dear's creative life, 'Dear John' takes on a level of anticipation rarely reserved for Svanangen's previous releases. But how exactly will the big Scandinavian set about rounding off such a wilfully experimental project and provide it with the big, bold and ambitious full-stop it so evidently deserves? Simple. By taking the most inspirational moments from the previous four albums, breathing new life into them and sprinkling them liberally over the length and breadth of this exceptional new album.
The bar for 'Dear John' is set exceptionally high with the album's opening track. Typically Loney Dear, 'Airport Surroundings' is a huge slab of spiralling synth excess that jack-hammers its way into your sub-conscious. Whether it's Emil's childlike 'nah-nah-nahs', that throbbing, relentless drum machine or those clinical, synthesized beats, 'Airport Surroundings' gets under your skin and electrifies your senses. From there on in there's rarely a duff moment in sight. 'Summers' is a sparkling jolt of Svanangen's magic (that bares more than a passing resemblance to 'Saturday Waits'), 'I Got Lost' finds Andrew Bird adding a violin passage that aches with introspection, whilst 'Distant' is a dark and bombastic slice of electrified perfection that builds into an apoplectic club monster.
One after another the songs come; each more enchanting and life-affirming than the last. Each responsible for etching the name 'Loney Dear' deeper and deeper into the fabric of this particular scribes long-overloaded memory. With 'Dear John', Emil Svanangen has concluded the Loney Dear chapter with such brilliance and unadulterated perfection that it touches ever so slightly on genius. The one question that remains.... where on earth does Emil go from here?
'Dear John' is released on 2nd March 2009 through Parlophone.
Words: Jacob Spencer
Official Site: www.loneydear.com
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