Label: Astralwerks
Released: Jun 29, 2004 |
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A worthy contender for year end lists, this first full-length album from Stockholm, Sweden's The Concretes casts a number of interesting shadows. Though outwardly most indebted to Phil Spector's wall-of-sound, and referencing The Supremes in two of the album's best songs ("You Can't Hurry Love", "Diana Ross"), The Concretes at the same time recall Mazzy Star, Jesus and Mary Chain, and even the Velvet Underground in their ability to make drone look like the hottest girl out swaying on the dancefloor. There is lovely, lilting orchestration throughout, and the band tries, like many brave souls before, to wrest the rock sax from the cold dead hands of Clarence Clemens, though the focus throughout is on singer Victoria Bergsman, as delightfully accented as Nico, and as haunting as Mazzy Star.
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