eMusic Review 0
It is, perhaps, instructive that this Swedish five-piece hail from Blackeberg, the town outside Stockholm that was the setting for the atmospherically chilling 2008 cult horror film Let The Right One In. Vampire children: deliciously shivery…So it is with Pale Silver & Shiny Gold, Sad Day For Puppets' second album. Anna Eklund's voice is a thing of ghostly, nape-tickling brilliance, particularly when swathed in echo and drenched in sweet feedback and twanging, drawn-out chords, as on the ballad "First Time."
"Fuzzy Feather, Touch" and "Shadows" are more straight-down-the-middle indie fuzzpop — like Teenage Fanclub crossed with Belle and Sebastian. No bad thing, when the melodies are this robust — the sugar-metal punch of Touch is particularly irresistible — or when they're bracketed by the more adventurous likes of "Sorrow, Sorrow" (imagine a boozy, woozy Carpenters) and "Beads" (plaintive folk-psychedelia that Mazzy Star would kill for).
2010 began with the release of The Big Black & The Blue, the debut album by First Aid Kit, teenage sisters with killer harmonies and serious folk-music chops. In the middle, Robyn released two mini-albums of thrilling electro-pop. And now the year is drawing to a close with this deftly written mini-masterpiece. Watch… read more »
