I always like coming across bands who haven’t released anything for a few years, because often there’s an interesting story to tell – as well as some good historical music to catch up on. Swedish indie band The Entire Cast are a good example having not released anything since 2014, and new album ‘On Holiday’ has just been released.
The band released their first album, which was entitled The Entire Cast under the name No Coda, and seem to get good press at the time. I really can’t think of any other examples where the band renamed themselves after their own album title, but that’s what the 6 piece group appear to have done.
From that album ‘On Holiday’ they have released single ‘Oct Dream’, and it’s proof that catchy songs don’t have to be up tempo, because this is simply so laid back and gently tuneful. It doesn’t open that way, it has an unfashionable long intro at over 1 minute (which I always approve of), before the drumbeat cleverly takes the song down a notch, and then Madeleine Hansen’s earthy vocals bring it down to an even slower pace. It’s still a track that somehow I still want to dance to, only I’d be on one leg for so long I’d probably topple over.
All this does allow attention to be thrown on to the lyrics, which are curiously reflective ‘’See all the rendered housing, evil implores, we will stand guard inside its door’’.
I love the sound of the guitars too, which reminds me of so many of those classic influential American / British indie bands of 20-30 years ago (Stereolab, maybe The Breeders), and the album ‘On Holiday’ is very much in that spirit. It’s also the type of ‘slow burner’ album that I’ll take great pleasure in getting to know over the next 6 months. For now I’ve only just started, with tracks such as the marginally more upbeat (and heavily instrumental) ‘Trixxy’ and the melodic ‘Du Du Du’ already appealing.