I always like coming across albums completely unexpectedly, and courtesy of Einar Ekström from the excellent Swedish band Astral Brain I’ve belatedly discovered fellow Swede disco dream indie pop project Top Sound, who've just released their album ’Isn’t Happiness’ - it was Einar who mixed the record.
Of course it goes without saying that they only just about pass the Nordic Music Review ‘googlebility test’, courtesy of ‘top sounds’ apparently being available globally, but turns out they’ve been active for well over 10 years, mostly as a duo, but they haven’t released much since their self titled debut in 2011. Showing how everything and everyone is interconnected in some way, however, they did do a joint project with lovely Finnish band The New Tigers on our favourite Soliti label a few years back.
Anyway I really like the album straight from opener ‘Sadma’, which has what I call ‘comfort food’ guitars that remind me of so many of my favourite bands, sweeping strings and a gentle melody that carries the whole thing through. It‘s probably the highlight of the album, which is of course could mean that it’s all downhill from here, but you should love ‘Mario, Where Are You’ almost as much, with an irresistibly catchy lilting tune.
‘YSL’ reminds me a little of the always loveable indie pop band The School, whilst I love the lyrics in ‘Deliverance’, a song about not doing very much at all. ‘Hernani’ seems to mix shoegaze with 70’s disco, and whilst I can’t deny that ‘Linn Disco’ doesn’t offer massive variation, ‘A Dress For All Seasons’ offers a gently melodic and horizontally laid back conclusion.
This album has genuine warmth to it, indie pop with a timeless feel that has hints of influences from across the decades and regions of the world, upbeat with catchy tunes and for reasons unknown I have a feeling that the whole thing was recorded with a lot of laughter from all involved. It certainly brings a huge smile to my face.