NEW ALBUMS
A to Z
This month…
P30 ROGÊ
P31 EMMA ANDERSON
P32 ANDREW GABBARD
P33 KIM DEAL
P34 UNDERWORLD
P35 DUMMY
P37 PETER PERRETT
P38 WARMDUSCHER
ABSTRACT CRIMEWAVE The Longest Night
CHIMP LIMBS
7/10
Swedish super-duo Smile switch names; Chrissie Hynde guests
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s gazumping of their former moniker forced a new guise for this third album by Peter Bjorn & John’s Björn Yttling and Stockholm musician/producer Joakim Åhlund. Their rubbery, resonant, riff-heavy sound recalls the warm early digital production of The Cardigans or Air, aided by Lykke Li’s sugary croon on “The Gambler”, and Chrissie Hynde’s introspective ache through “The Longest Night”’s Swedish midwinter, “starless and Bible-black”. “Flyga Fram” deploys Dungen’s Gustav Ejstes with contrasting breeziness recalling “Young Folks”, while instrumental interludes act as dreamy antechambers to the smoothly punchy indie-pop. “Sailing Away” slips between percussive choruses and languidly disaffected verses, the singer’s trip downgraded from “moon” to “room”, ennui only briefly shadowing the sunny exuberance.