Kristoffer Bolander:
I Forgive Nothing:
Tapete:
LP/CD/DD:
Out November 13th:
★★★★★★½☆☆☆☆
Sweden's production-line of heartstring-tugging songwriters continues apace with the emergence of Kristoffer Bolander and his first stab at solo success. His band Holmes and the writer Samuel Beckett serve as inspirations and influences for much of I Forgive Nothing, while Bolander's angelic voice, a hybrid of Neil Young, Mattias Edlund from '90s Swedish soft-rockers The Motorhomes' and Mew's Jonas Bjerre, carries the melancholia over the pop threshold.
For every anthemic stomper like Running Man and the celestial title-track, there's a sad-face opposite waiting to chime in. The six-minute epic Rooted is no exception with it's acoustic gloom and minor-key mood that finally springs into mid-paced life after a couple of tear-duct tickling minutes of acoustic guitar and atmospherics. Sometimes you need another few minutes to drive home the point and as the distressed electric guitars and pounding drums increase their intensity, I can't help thinking this could have been the album's curtain call.
Starlight and Scale return to more familiar territory, both tuneful, hope-bearing and wide-eyed mini-epics that showcase Bolander's unerring ability to craft a song from little more than a handful of organic instruments. And when the man opts to produce something in less than two minutes, as with Home, it's all very special and less is more.
I Forgive Nothing is worthy of your time even if the overall result is as far from the party as you could wish to be. Sometimes solitude wins out.
I Forgive Nothing:
Tapete:
LP/CD/DD:
Out November 13th:
★★★★★★½☆☆☆☆
For every anthemic stomper like Running Man and the celestial title-track, there's a sad-face opposite waiting to chime in. The six-minute epic Rooted is no exception with it's acoustic gloom and minor-key mood that finally springs into mid-paced life after a couple of tear-duct tickling minutes of acoustic guitar and atmospherics. Sometimes you need another few minutes to drive home the point and as the distressed electric guitars and pounding drums increase their intensity, I can't help thinking this could have been the album's curtain call.
Starlight and Scale return to more familiar territory, both tuneful, hope-bearing and wide-eyed mini-epics that showcase Bolander's unerring ability to craft a song from little more than a handful of organic instruments. And when the man opts to produce something in less than two minutes, as with Home, it's all very special and less is more.
I Forgive Nothing is worthy of your time even if the overall result is as far from the party as you could wish to be. Sometimes solitude wins out.