MP3: Ironville - Roses
Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby decree that Ironville's forthcoming album "Welcome to Ironville" to be 2009's second exceptional release, the first being Livaventura's "...And they slept with their eyes open" (see here). Keep in mind that order here is unimportant as that Livaventura record won't be out until April and Ironville's debut has no official release date yet (spring?), but I've heard them both and am confident in my appraisal. Hopefully you already saw the video for "Roses" as created by band member Henrik Öhberg (aka Tvärvägen) -- if not, please remedy that straightaway. And download the song, of course! The lyrics are full of neediness, but the delivery keeps the desperation at bay by being quirky, not cloying. It's a discussion, not an ultimatum, at least not yet. And the string-heavy arrangement is a welcome respite from all the generic guitar-based crap I sift through on a daily basis. Actually, that's one of Ironville's finest qualities -- it's not just a matter of having an armada of instruments at your disposal (which they do), it's about using them judiciously. I can't say for sure that it's the band's own doing or the invisible hand of producer Markus Krunegård (Laakso), but I don't really care because the result sounds so fantastic. Keep an eye on these guys for sure.
Ironville - Roses