The Kissaway Trail
s/t
Playground
Drawing as much from the layered swells of bands like Decibully and Broken Social Scene, as from the anthemic approach of Arcade Fire, this is a fine, if not damned accomplished debut album. While there are touches of bands like The National, another band oft quoted as having 'jumped on the Arcade Fire bandwagon,' there is as much of the lost, jangled melodies reminiscent of indie music from the late 90s to give The Kissaway Trail an oddly nostalgic quality while simultaneously being placing themselves alongisde contemporary artists presently in the public mind. "Forever turned out to be too long" is everything an opening track should be: elusive and alluring, bringing to mind bands that garnered our love of music, and obviously influenced the band's delivery, though composed of unique strata that give the compositions an original tangibility. Bleeding out of the opener in one of the finest transitions on record, "Smother + evil = hurt" brings the pulse of record to bear for the first time, and pushes this wonderful album off on its way. "La la song" and "Eloquence and elixir" are yet more examples of their brilliance as artists, and provide as much energy in the latter minutes of the album as the opening tracks instilled. As a proud half-Swede who used to call Stockholm my home, I'm once again forced to admit that Denmark has unveiled yet another talented band.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
