Title: For Tomorrow
Artist: Emerald Park
Genre: Indie / Acoustic / Electronic
Release Date: 14th November 2008
Label: AF Music
Album Review
With ‘A Higher Loss’, the preceding single to ‘For Tomorrow’, the promising band from Sweden firstly came to my attention this June. Would they be able to hold what the single promised?
After a small intro we’re slewing over right away to the first track, ‘The Commonfield’, which reminds me of a trading fair with its starting melody before we can hear the drums and acoustic guitars coming and the bitter sweet melancholy becomes our companion, while alternating male and female vocals imbue the listener’s heart and soul. With ‘Ume’ everything becomes somewhat more poppy and brisk, backing up the melancholy just a little bit. Still it’s quite captivating to hear the facility it all seems to run down with and with which they’re creating such little gems.
Always when I hear the guitar melody and the whistles in ‘Värnheim’ I feel like being in a Western movie. A tracking shot goes over a vats prairie to a house where a man sits on his veranda, watches the sunset and sings, sings a deeply melancholic tune immersed in the minor chords of the guitar and violin; it’s magical. If you’re expecting to find folkloristic approaches from the City in the Bosporus you couldn’t be farther off, hence you’ll find greatly orchestrated drum parts in it, vivid guitars and a gentle violin in one of the liveliest tracks on ‘For Tomorrow’.
A favourite of mine comes now. It’s called ‘Pasadena’ and has a kittenish yet reduced rhythm underlining it in the intro. Then a stronger dance beat kicks in simultaneously with the wide pad sounds. Martina’s voice here sounds so dreamy and yearning. It’s a perfect song to get carried far away, to ‘Pasadena’ for instance. The dreamy, yearning feeling is being obtained on the following ‘Lights of Sunday’ but with a pinch of sadness inside, while you’re hearing the story of a man “…who’s lost his faith” and who’s “Tired of himself.”
To answer the question from the introduction right away: Yes, absolutely, without any doubt. It’s not holding the quality of the single, in my opinion it’s even raising it; one gem after another. Still, they’re quite an insider’s tip here, but I doubt it will stay this way. A recommended release!
Tracklist
01. Intro – 1:10
02. The Commonfield – 5:01
03. Ume – 3:58
04. A Higher Loss – 4:42
05. Värnhem – 3:57
06. Istanbul – 4:31
07. At the Mall – 2:50
08. Open – 4:05
09. Pasadena – 4:22
10. Lights of Sunday – 4:45
11. Ambivalence – 1:56
12. For Tomorrow – 6:25
Line-up
Tobias Borelius
Martina Johansson
Frans af Schmidt
Mats Andreasson
Mikael Eskilsson
Website
http://www.emeraldmusic.net/ / www.myspace.com/emeraldpark
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
{jos_sb_discuss:19}
Comments powered by CComment