Loney, Dear
(Polyvinyl)
Emil Svanangen has often blown his wistful little pop songs out to grand proportions, whether surrounding them with a jubilant indie chorus, as on Loney, Noir, lacing them with pounding drums on Dear John or, this time out, enlisting classical instruments. Here, on a record inspired by his year-long collaboration with Swedish chamber music orchestras, Svanangen's wavery voice flickers in and out of thickets of brass, plays tag with flights of xylophone and emerges, bruised and pining, from fog-bound forests of synthesizer. A broader palette of instruments, however, seems only to accentuate the personal nature of Svanangen's work.
"Largo," for instance, is burnished with church organ drones and string bass plunks, yet loses none of its naked self-revelation in the process. Even the complex, brass-flaring, drum-punctuated "Durmoll" has a whispery, confessional core. More conventional indie pop songs - "Loney Blues," for instance, and "My Heart" - seek an orchestra's density and scope to articulate inner musings. This music is big enough for a hall, but soft and heartfelt enough for the quietest corner.
DOWNLOAD: "My Heart," "Durmoll" JENNIFER KELLY
