MEER
Playing House KARISMA
Big-hearted Norwegian eight-piece with a more-is-more mentality.
It says a lot about the mercurial creativity that drives Meer’s music that the Norwegian band began as a duo. These days, they are eight in number, with violin, viola and an assortment of other eccentric embellishments all adding to a rich ensemble sound. In truth, the songs on Playing House may well have begun as delicate, simple things, such is the immediacy and vitality of the melodies that unfurl from these songs like flowers in bloom. But rather than overegg the pudding, Meer’s all-hands-on-deck approach turns some wonderfully memorable songs into sublime mini symphonies, with dazzling musical detail, generous helpings of bluster and a gift for the kind of dynamics that make attentive listeners spit their tea across the room.