Following the release of their single ‘In A Rush’ ft. Chloe Rodgers last month (which we reviewed), the mysterious Scandinavian collective Twenty Committee, led by producer Anders Källmark,returned with something new, literally on October 13th. That’s the title of the song. Källmark has recruited a collection of Swedish and British songwriters and vocalists for Twenty Committee’s debut album ‘Minutes’. Presumably there will be one or more singles from it along the way.
This particular collective comprises a big group of people who come and go but a mainstay appears to be Chloe Rodgers, a singer who is originally from Nottingham, along with co-producer William Purton. The 23-year old Rodgers, who has been compared by reason of her “vocal independence” to Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins, Massive Attack), was discovered by Källmark while he was trawling through YouTube.
The song lyrics, written by Alex Starling, are about finding out that you are now happy in what you thought was a stagnant relationship. (“From always wanting something new, I just wanted you”). Or is it “I just want in you”? Naughty.
An unusual angle on the break-up song for sure. Unfortunately, that’s about the measure of the lyrical content, it is a bit repetitive and the scarce additional lyrics don’t add much more to it.
But that isn’t to criticise it too much. Sometimes it’s a case of the simpler the message, the better.
It’s a classy middle of the road pop ballad which seems to be from a different era though it’s hard to say exactly which one, with high production standards and a nice, solemn, restrained piano section which incorporates some notes from Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ and which was apparently added as something of an afterthought by Will
But more than anything it has Chloe Rodgers’ seductive voice, which varies here somewhere between Nanna from Of Monsters and Men and an early Kate Bush.
The album, ‘Minutes’, will be released by record label Crowds and Power, which has an intriguing background as it was named after an Elias Canetti book, published in 1960, that focuses on the dynamics of crowds and packs and asks why crowds obey the power of rulers. “The label looks to take an equally rebellious route as it navigates the music turmoil to uncover truly hidden gems snuck into the fabric of our lives.”
It promises everything from “Brian Eno’s ‘Music for Airports’ to “dewy-eyed synth-pop (featuring some lovely Cure-type guitar)”. And that’s just on one song.
The imagination of Källmark combined with the subtlety of Rodgers is reason enough on its own to suggest this band are going to make waves when this album is dropped. How many minutes is it until then..?
Incidentally, in case you missed it in the previous review, Anders Källmark is also the mastermind behind the new EP ‘Whale’ from rising Swedish songstress Rebecka Reinhard, who we reviewed only last week with a new song.