Label: Fifth Week Records
Viewing posts
1-5 out of
5
5
Playing like deep cuts off the "Juno" soundtrack, Flower Clans' newest offering "Voodoo Café" certainly has its moments. However, the Swedish band often mistakes youthful giddiness for audio sugar rush -- landing their work directly in 3-year-old birthday party territory.
It's not that "Voodoo Café" isn't a charming offering -- not admiring its homespun charm would be somewhat akin to kicking a puppy -- however, their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach quickly wears. Somewhere under it all lays strong, guitar driven folk. When it works on cuts like "Mountain low lay" and "Call me with a smile" it works. However, more often than not, it's frosted over with bizarre Kimya Dawson vocal ticks and errant woodwinds, making songs such as "Tina the reader" a breathtaking study in "almost". Then there are the more flagrant offenders. The best one can say about "Laj la la la laj la la la laj" is at least the band believes in proof in advertising. If only they had taken the perfect flute-driven fluff of closing track "Sunshine" and spread the wealth. Now that would have been something to make us giddy.
- Laura Studarus
6
This CD's got the feel of a batch of still-warm cookies a friend just baked and brought over. You can easily imagine the siblings who lead this band and their friends sitting round at home dreaming up silly and sad Christmas songs (one which spent way too many days stuck in my head is titled "It's a sad sad Christmas Day, Sadaam Hussein") and recording them right then and there. The hand-wrapped-in-Christmas-wrapping-paper packaging only adds to the informal feel of a friendly gift. But spontaneous and lightweight as the record may be, there's some real talent in this band, and like their more serious (and better) 2007 release, "Late fairytales", it's got some really nice lo-fi indie songs that combine strong pop sense with some late 1970s New York art rock influence.
- Nancy Baym
8
This has been the surprise record of the year for me. Though they are often categorized as twee - a label their flute + acoustic guitar + alternating boy/girl singer sound would seem to merit - I'd plant this release firmly in the indie pop category, circa the late 1980s with its momentary flashes of bands like Throwing Muses and The Feelies. It's hard to use a flute without sounding horribly arty or just plain horrible, but here it offers a nice sunny dimension without ever stepping over into sugary or, worse yet, saccharine. The heavy bass no doubt helps this, as do the slightly flat but never annoying vocals. The songs are all good, and they have a really nice way of creeping under your skin so that while you're consciously getting hooked on one, you're unknowingly about to decide another is really your favorite. At nine songs in half an hour, it's too short, but it's a half hour well spent. Get one of the first 300 copies and it comes in a sweet hand-sewn sleeve.
- Nancy Baym
5
Flower Clans play acoustic guitar strumming indie folk rock, lacking good melodies or charisma. The seven tracks lull along and all blend into one decent, but unexciting unity that I doubt will make anyone raise an eyebrow, despite flutes and handclaps.
- Simon Tagestam
What we have here is a failure to self-edit. The new album from this Swedish indiepop act starts out strong enough, but quickly loses steam with quite a few tracks that should've been cut during preproduction. The A-level material would've made for a nice EP by itself, but they can't quite hack it for a full 40 minutes.
- Avi Roig
Flower Clans
Les Issambres
