Scandinavia is all the rage, you know. You can find out all about it in David Bentley’s excellent regular feature in these very pages, and anyone who hasn’t been living in a soundproof treehouse at the end of their grandmother’s garden for the last few years will be well aware of the tremendous wealth of creative talent that has bound forth from our alpine* cousins of late.
In truth though, where Band Of Gold‘s music is concerned, it would take an eagle-eared (is that even a thing?) listener to confidently identify even the smidgiest (I know that’s not a word but I like it) trace of a Nordic accent whatsoever. Most of the material that makes up the band’s second long player Where’s The Magic sounds like subtle twists on British and/or American artistes of the recent past, so opener ‘Bring Back‘ is like a less energetic Go! Team, perhaps produced by Brand New Heavies or even Morcheeba, while by contrast, the later ‘Well Who Am I‘ is a splendidly exciting tune that keeps on growing, while seemingly channelling James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem.
Before we get to this point though, we have Tango In The Night era Fleetwood Mac prettiness in the form of ‘I Wanna Dance With You Again‘, the PJ Harvey meets Fiona Apple “don’t even think about it” intensity of ‘I Could Spot You At A Hundred Miles‘ and the lonely solitude of ‘Away With You‘, which somehow conjures up images in the brain (well, mine at least) of Sarah Cracknell sitting glumly in a bedsit in Essex…which is a tad weird, granted, given that I’ve never seen the inimitable Saint Etienne lynchpin look anything but joyous.
Perhaps the most effective track here, however, is the stark Dear John letter ‘Into The Void‘, which pulls no punches as our protagonist informs a former lover that “I’m leaving you baby” in relatively hushed tones, and then shortly afterwards “I’m killing it baby“, which either implies simply the death of their love or, rather more ominously, suggests that she is pregnant and about to have their unborn child aborted. If, indeed that IS what’s going on here, then that’s one of the most brutal lines I’ve ever heard. But then, if not, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been wrong with my interpretation!
By complete contrast, the title track is an unashamed pop gem that had me dancing on the dining room table in tight golden hotpants until my wife told me off and demanded that I get down (I’m joking, honest!), and really the nine beautifully crafted songs that make up Where’s The Magic speak for themselves and indicate exactly why they managed to see off the likes of Björk and Jenny Hval to win the 2015 Nordic Music Prize. Music for moodswings, that’s about the size of it.
*Geography was never my strong point…
Where’s The Magic is out now on Jansen Records.
