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mobilehomes trigger
Artist: The Mobile Homes
Title: Trigger
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 26th March 2021
Label: Wild Kingdom Records


Album Review

Formed way back in 1984 in Sweden, THE MOBILE HOMES have not been what you would call prolific. Brief early brushes with fame, supporting bands like LAIBACH and NITZER EBB, is sadly like wallowing in your “Curry Restaurant of the Year (third runner-up) 1995” certificate, although they did also record an album with ex-KRAFTWERK member Karl Batos, and that’s always going to be something they can show-off about at a wedding buffet. So, it’s quite a surprise, after a substantial period of silence, to find ‘Trigger’, a new release, vying for attention in a cluttered Synth Pop world.

‘Via Dolorosa’ decides honesty is the best policy, and simply tells you like it is. This is not going to set the world alight with radical new directions, it’s not going to fill vast dancefloors or soundtrack a Marvel movie or be the advertising saviour of some funky new electric Volvo. What it will do though, is make you a really good, solid, refreshing cocktail, sit you down with a reasonably good view, and entertain you while you unwind from a hard day’s graft home-schooling and Zoom-calling with colleagues you didn’t realise you hated quite so much a year ago.

Crisp, clean lines, melodies that sit comfortably over reliably sturdy electronics, and the occasional jolt of a wicked chorus or killer line - it’s all in here, assured and confident enough, and with shades of passing dark clouds to keep everything ambiguous and multi-faceted. ‘Zero Zero’ then, opts for a wonky Ultra-era DEPECHE MODE, ‘The Sorrow Stays For Good’ is, as the title suggests, nicely melancholic and self-indulgent, and ‘Mirror’ floats on by inoffensively. It’s just that at times, it’s all a bit, well, soggy. ‘Once Upon A Time I Was Handsome’ for example, despite the great title, winds up feeling like the forgotten track on a PET SHOP BOYS EP, and just as you feel ‘As You Said It’ is ready to burst out into a hugely memorable chorus… it doesn’t. Like middle-aged foreplay, it’s all promise and little action.

‘Obscurity’ boasts some genuinely odd and effective dynamics, and taps into that latent melancholy once more, making this a direction you feel the band would be wise to follow. It’s an excellent closing track, which leaves something of a mystery as to why no-show “experimental” instrumental closer ‘Trigger’ gets to take the final bow. Very strange. On the whole, there’s nothing wrong here, but it’s such an inconsistent collection, one suspects these are bits and pieces of stuff left lying around in the studio over the years that have been swept up and given a tidy. Worth a listen, and worth keeping for the highlights, but much of this can be gently put back on the studio floor, where it was probably quite content merely gathering dust and reminiscing.


Tracklist

01. Via Dolorosa
02. The Song We Didn’t Have Then
03. Zero Zero
04. My Graveyard
05. The Sorrow Stays For Good
06. Mirror
07. Once Upon A Time I Was Handsome
08. As You Said It
09. Obscurity
10. Trigger


Line-up

Andreas Brun
Patrik Brun
Hans Erkendal
Sami Servio
Markus Mustonen


Website

http://www.themobilehomes.se / https://www.facebook.com/themobilehomes


Cover Picture

mobilehomes trigger


Rating

Music: 6
Sound: 6
Total: 6 / 10




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