M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003)

1) Birds; 2) Unrecorded; 3) Run into Flowers; 4) In Church; 5) America; 6) On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain; 7) Noise; 8) Be Wild; 9) Cyborg; 10) 0078h; 11) Gone; 12) Beauties Can Die

Cold and harsh winter landscapes set to crescendos of discordant guitars and swirling synths. Both an evolution and a sidestep in the wider picture, but also the most atmospheric work from an act famed for it. 

Key tracks: "Unrecorded", "On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain", "0078h"

The cover for Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is probably meant to come across serene - a group of children spending time together doing nothing at all like small town kids do, and probably making snow angels on that field. But there's something unsettling about it to me, though. It's weird to say this from an image but it looks almost too quiet, like everything has paused to an unnatural still around the frame of the picture and you have this disquieting feeling that there's something creeping in the background, right out of sight and there's something stranger about those kids who've fallen on the ground. And the music associated with that cover probably has a lot to do with that 

Dead Cities etc is musically anything but serene - it's loud, sometimes close to even harshly so. It's primarily because of the guitars and how they are wielded throughout the twelve songs. M83's debut was an atmospheric electronic album with an edge, but for the second album the still-duo have started utilising guitars as a core element of their sound, but abstaining from treating them as a melodic instrument. Dead Cities is full of jagged, distorted guitar walls, mixed high above the other elements: fuzzy synthesizers which sound like they're defying their date of obsoletion, loud crashing drums, almost-industrial sound effects - all sounds that have a similar hard hit. It's similar to how guitars are used in shoegaze, which Dead Cities takes some influence from, but in this case the effect is as if the guitarist had hit the wrong pedal and gone for sharp distortion over echoing reverb. If you can call guitars stabbing, it's the perfect way to describe them here. Just their tone enough is to make the album sound slightly ominous: there's something in them that twitches the reflex to run and never look back no matter what you hear right behind you.

 
Besides shoegaze, post-rock tends to get thrown around a lot as a descriptor for Dead Cities and though it's not a perfect comparison, they both share the same emphasis on dynamics. Most of the songs here are centered around vivid shifts in scope and size in the sound: from how "Unrecorded" melts away its loud alternative rock guitars for its synth-filled second half, the looming organ of "Church" flicking into the high-speed chaos in "America", the constantly growing "On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain" that sticks to its basic loop but keeps building it louder and more crushingly towering. Vocals aren't really a thing yet for M83 and they barely feature here apart from a few brief and usually wordless appearances and some sample work, and so many of these strictly instrumental works have a cinematic quality to how they build themselves, with a vivid scene set to each song that you can comfortably envision with your imagination, simply on the evocative strength of the music. A cheekier way to describe it would be that it's the crescendos of post-rock with all the minutes of predecessing noodling chopped out; though together these 12 songs do form a greater whole even if it rarely segues from one song to another.

Even though it's only the second M83 album, in retrospect it's already a peculiar detour in the otherwise fairly linear evolution of M83 and it does tie itself together to the main timeline by its emphasis on big, epic moments that M83 are so fond of, but there's little of the euphoria or exhuberance that they normally bring to the table. Only "0078h" sounds genuinely upbeat, with its sampled and cut vocals bouncing around brightly across the atypically positive backdrop: it's a genuinely welcome breather after the dramatic multi-song mountain before it that it gleefully rides down from. Dead Cities isn't a dark record but it's a cold one - something out of a dark winter night, where it's forebodingly quiet and pervasively cold in a way that gets to your bones. The sharp sounds flare up a constant sense of unease, and the contrast between the violent metal cutter guitars and the deeply immersive analog synth sounds is wonderful, and my favourite songs here are the ones where M83 really emphasise that juxtaposition: "Unrecorded" was the first M83 song I heard and it was absolutely arresting from the very first moment, and the switch from its intense first half to the contemplative, stargazing second part never sounds any less inspired, while "On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain" is an exercise in pinpointing a particularly striking mood and then digging deeper and deeper into it with each loop of swirling synthesizers and textural guitar chords. And while it is a slightly different take on the usual M83 traits, there's still overlap: "Run into Flowers" is a look forwards towards Before the Dawn Heals Us, "Gone" gives the great final scene crescendos they're famous for and "Beauties Can Die" is the traditional gentle near-ambient closer, and this time it's also the one song on the record where all discordant elements are gone and what's left are simply the twinkling melodies gently falling from the sky like a peaceful if wistful snowfall.

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is a great record. It's arguably the most atmospheric M83 have ever been - including the albums that directly leaned towards ambient or movie scores - and if the mood they've picked is the unnerving first 40 minutes of a thriller film right before things begin to escalate, then so be it and they've pulled it off excellently. Throughout it's a captivating, entrancing record, and it really highlights just how great Gonzalez and (on this record) Nicolas Fromageau are at creating stories out of just music because it's those visual images, a lot of which are hard to jot down in writing without coming across a little too self-indulgent, that come to my mind first and foremost when I think of the record. It's a strange, barren record that's continents away from the verdant summers of their biggest albums and while I prefer some of those overall, there's a kind of wizardry here they've not touched since. There's a world within these songs that I'm cautious to explore, but which I'm absolutely compelled to.

Rating: 8/10

Sonic Team - Sonic Adventure 2 Multi-Dimensional Original Soundtrack (2001)

CD1: 1) SA2 ...Main Riff for Sonic Adventure 2; 2) Event: Let's Make It!; 3) Escape From the City ...for City Escape; 4) The Mad Convoy Race ...for City Escape; 5) That's the Way I Like It ...for Metal Harbor; 6) Can't Stop, So What!? ...for Metal Harbor; 7) Won't Stop, Just Go! ...for Green Forest; 8) Keys the Ruin ...for Pyramid Cave; 9) Unstable World ...for Crazy Gadget; 10) Highway in the Sky ...for Final Rush; 11) Boss: -GUN- Mobile; 12) Advertise: SA2 ...in the Groove; 13) Event: Strategy: 14) This Way Out ...for Prison Lane; 15) Rumbling HWY ...for Mission Street; 16) Chasing Drive ...for Kart; 17) Down in the Base ...for Hidden Base; 18) On the Edge ...for Eternal Engine; 19) Advertise: SA2 ver. B; 20) Kick the Rock! ...for Wild Canyon; 21) A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup ...for Pumpkin Hill; 22) Dive into the Mellow ...for Aquatic Mine; 23) Deeper ...for Death Chamber; 24) Space Trip Steps ...for Meteor Herd; 25) Boss: Masters of the Desert: 26) Event: Reunion; 27) Advertise: Prof. Omochao; 28) Chao Race Extended Mix (Chao's Doki-Doki Banana Chips Run Mix); 29) Chao Garden Extended Mix (Chao's Wack-Wack Up & Down the Ground Mix)
CD2: 1) Vengeance Is Mine ...for Radical Highway; 2) Rhythm and Balance ...for White Jungle; 3) Mr. Unsmiley ...for Sky Rail; 4) The Supernatural ...for Final Chase; 5) For True Story ...for Sonic vs. Shadow; 6) Event: Conquest; 7) Hey You! It's Time to Speed Up Again!!!; 8) Still Invincible ...No Fear!; 9) Advertise: Rhythmic Passage; 10) Boss: Suitable Opponent; 11) Remember Me? M.F.M. ...for Iron Gate; 12) Way to the Base ...for Sand Ocean; 13) Trespasser ...for Lost Colony; 14) Crush 'Em All ...for Weapons Bed; 15) Soarin' Over the Space ...for Cosmic Wall; 16) Event: 3 Black Noises (Revival... Chaos Control... Reflection...); 17) Advertise: SA2 ver. C; 18) Event: Sonic vs. Shadow; 19) Bright Sound ...for Dry Lagoon; 20) Lovely Gate 3 ...for Egg Quarters; 21) I'm a Spy ...for Security Hall; 22) 34N, 12E ...for Mad Space; 23) Event: The Base; 24) Boss: Shut Up Faker!; 25) Scramble for the Core ...for Cannon's Core; 26) Cooperation ...for Cannon's Core; 27) Deep Inside Of... for Cannon's Core; 28) Supporting Me ...for Biolizard; 29) Event: Madness; 30) Event: The Last Scene; 31) Live & Learn ...Main Theme of Sonic Adventure 2

An ambitious, expansive and epic attempt to create something spectacular for Sonic the Hedgehog's first big anniversary ends up becoming the series' highest benchmark of quality.

Key tracks: "Escape from the City", "Kick the Rock!", "Live and Learn"

I've long cultivated an analogy of Sonic the Hedgehog soundtracks as a band discography for my own fun, and continuing on that theme, Sonic Adventure 2 is the sprawling, multi-disc epic created by a band that's high and lofty with ambition, unafraid to tackle any obstacle and wanting to expand their sound in every single direction. That's right - in the world of Sonic music this is the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the Sandinista, the White Album.

1998's Sonic Adventure brought Sonic to the 3D world, and in the process introduced and in some places codified many of the trademark elements now associated with the series. One of those was the music. The infectiously melodic sound of the original 2D games was obviously restricted by the hardware of its time, which towards the late 90s and the adoption of CDs as the primary format for games was no longer an issue, and so a reinvention was not only possible but in many ways necessary. Spearheaded by Jun Senoue, who had taken the step to become the primary musical coordinator for the series and who boasted some serious guitar chops of his own, the soundtrack for Sonic Adventure had a decent amount of variety as the music team took every advantage of the new sound possibilities, but above all it was tied together by Senoue's energetic and dynamic guitar-lead rock approach. The melodies were still present and in the forefront, but through Sonic Adventure, the entire series became synonymous with the revved-up riffs and solos that Senoue cast over the high-speed action, backed by his incredibly virtuosic band.

The release of Sonic Adventure 2 was the key event for Sonic's 10th anniversary celebrations, and the aim for the game was to make into the kind of an Event that an anniversary milestone should be. Thus, the plot increased the stakes and injected a fair bit of before unseen dramatic flair to the series, the level set pieces became more bombastic in an endless internal contest to one-up the previous level, and Senoue's soundtrack team were driven to be more ambitious to match the increasingly epic nature of the game. The main goal was to keep increasing the variety. While Sonic Adventure already featured multiple playable characters each with their own levels, the songs that played during the stages remained the same depending on the area. For Sonic Adventure 2, the decision was made for each character to bear their unique musical flair that would tie together their levels while making the journey of each hero (or anti-hero) stand apart from the others. The other big addition was the increased presence of actual vocals accompanying the music. The first game had already featured vocal themes for all the characters and so Sonic Adventure 2 kept up that tradition, but in addition the soundtrack team began to utilise vocals throughout the actual stage songs, leading to several stages having their own unique sung lyrics accompanying the songs. As a soundtrack it was bigger, bolder and more expansive than the already ambitious Sonic Adventure score - in every way possible they could think of.

The core of the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack is still close to the sound that Sonic Adventure introduced, so the familiar guitar-lead anthems are present throughout across the two discs, but there's now the added twist of each character having a signature sound that breaks the soundtrack into neat little stylistic sections. For half the characters, the songs are rooted in the core sound but with different emphasis points and variations for each one. Sonic's stage songs are appropriately closest to the signature sound and they're among most unabashedly energetic of the set, with a peppy rock attitude speeding through Senoue's guitar wails. They're the closest representation of the series' newly adopted main style and in doing so end up being the most instantly hit-like (if you can describe video game songs as such), and in particular the first stage song, "Escape from the City" has deservedly become an iconic piece of the series' history: it's a snappy pop-punk anthem with free-spirited vocals and some of the most infectious melodies of the whole series, combined with an outrageously feel-good chorus. Tails' and Eggman's stages skirt around the same direction as Sonic's, but Tails' sections slightly nudge the guitars to the side from way of bright keyboard melodies, while Eggman's part of the soundtrack makes the riffs crunchier and rhythms more appropriately mechanical. The quality keeps consistently high throughout, and in fact while Sonic's songs might be punchier, Eggman and particularly Tails' score are full of delightful arrangement details and hidden mini melodies underneath the big ones. They never stop sounding fresh, which is definitely a boon when you're repeating the same levels over and over again in search of the elusive A-rank completions.

The broader divergences come with the other three characters. Shadow the Hedgehog is a creature on a roaring rampage of revenge for most of his story, and so his stages take a darker atmosphere while the genre shifts into a mixture of drum 'n' bass, jungle and techno, aggressive hyper-active beats keeping the adrenaline flowing, with the heavily filtered vocals that are barely legible giving the songs an intense, brooding feel. Rouge's jazz pop grooves are the complete opposite, with bright acoustic guitars, horns and rhythmic wordless vocals dum-dum-duming across breezy, light-as-air melodies. And then there's Knuckles. In Sonic Adventure, Knuckles' character theme beared a big rap influence and for the sequel the sound team drilled down on this, with all of his stage songs showing off a hip hop vibe and coming with full rap verses, with barely any instrumental time in-between. They are also incredible. Knuckles' stage songs are among the most fun in the entire game - utterly and completely cheesy of course, because when you have lines like "echi-don-a, that's what I'm representin'" or "the great emerald's power allows me to feel" it's unavoidable, but they are delivered with perfection. Hunnid-P has a great, charismatic flow, the production is top-notch with a suave jazz-rap groove vibe, and there's hooks for days. "Kick the Rock!" is just as iconic as "Escape from the City", "A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup" should be a regular part of everyone's Halloween playlist, "Dive into the Mellow" defines chill-hop, and "Space Trip Steps" soars and floats appropriately. The downtempo "Deeper" isn't quite as flashy as the rest, but the sudden monologue where Hunnid-P out of nowhere enacts a dialogue between Sonic and Knuckles all in same breathless voice tone (and which never appears in the game, it's a soundtrack-only inclusion) is a moment of baffling creative madness that becomes the de facto highlight of the song.

 
In-between these, there's a scattered number of various cutscene scores (Event), menu music (Advertise), boss themes (Boss), minigame medleys and other miscellanea, all of which display a similar genre-fluid freedom. The only thing slightly less than exciting than the stunningly consistent rest of the collection is the orchestral suite "3 Black Noises" which by its very nature stands out and halts the flow, and the two Chao Garden (think of a tamagotchi side game that could very well be a game unto its own) medleys which are charming but, in lack of a better word, a little 'kiddy' at times; the Chao Garden mix has some nice background moodscapes, but the Chao Race medley can be a little too saccharine and like out of a pre-schooler show. Still, from a completionist point of view it's good they're here and at least they're at the end of the disc, where they won't break the flow inadvertently. The boss themes are great throughout, and the melancholy but defiant and determined "Supporting Me" is de facto one of the definitive songs of the soundtrack, and even the cutscene tracks get their chance to shine with the heroic introduction scene of "Let's Make It!" which interpolates Sonic's character theme (not present on this soundtrack set), and especially the bittersweetly beautiful ending theme "The Last Scene" being particularly great. And of course, there's "Live and Learn", the main theme of the game. "Live and Learn" is quite certainly the apex point for Crush 40, the Sonic Team house band who frequently perform the main themes for the games, as well as the series' overall greatest theme song, to the point that you could at this stage call it the main theme of the entire franchise - it's an iconic song and an absolutely top-notch anthem, full of great riffs, great passionate hard rock vocals (not normally my cup of tea but Johnny Gioeli gets my points), a fantastic middle-eight and a final chorus that kicks up the gear all the way to eleven as the final send off.

You take all that and combine that together, and you can make a very real and very strong case that the soundtrack for Sonic Adventure 2 is quite possibly the greatest of all Sonic the Hedgehog soundtracks. Given the overall rock solid quality control across the decades that the series has held onto in its music, even whenever the games may not have been all that, that's a pretty high and mighty claim. It boils down to how this acts like the perfect sweet spot for the franchise's music. The style that the Blue Blur is most associated with - the wildhearted rock anthems - is polished to perfection here to the degree that it's these songs that define the sound, and it's thanks to this soundtrack that these aesthetics have become such a defining aspect of Sonic the Hedgehog. On top of that, the sound team took that boost of ambition and inspiration and rode it towards places they maybe couldn't the last time, adapting that polish and aesthetic towards entirely new ideas, casting the series' musical net wider almost overnight. Combine that with some incredibly strong songs, many of which feel like they could have even had a life outside video games if they were nudged towards that direction, and you get a soundtrack that is as aweworthy as it is expansive. It is exactly like those colossal multi-disc rock albums listed before - a triumph of ambition and inspiration from musicians who wanted to reach the next level.

But if we want to really crack open why this is getting the rare full score out of me, we need to dig a little deeper.

If the fact that I've already written so, so many paragraphs within this review alone about Sonic the Hedgehog music didn't tip you off, once upon a time I was a dedicated, full-time Sonic the Hedgehog fan. I was the kind of person who signed up to several forums dedicated to the series, became a regular contributor and a semi-known name across most of them, who would listen to the various soundtracks on repeat on a near-daily basis and who would play these games regularly over and over again - especially Sonic Adventure 2 or rather the SA2: Battle version on the GameCube. My formative years of being on the internet revolved around this franchise, and I felt a genuine community spirit with it: I'd idly spend late night hours just browsing pages of topics of like-minded people discussing various minutae, shared the excitement and joy whenever something new was announced or discovered, and some of the people I met through that eventually became friends who I still hang out with regularly in the real world. All of that was a long lifetime ago, but it's left a permanent imprint on me and as an obvious result, the series will always have a place in my heart even if I've more or less left the fandom behind as an active member - I still play the games, buy the soundtrack CDs and collect the odd piece of merchandise that ticks my boxes where and when I feel the need to. And out of all the great music in the entire franchise, it's the soundtrack to Sonic Adventure 2 that to me most represents that period of my life and the sort-of special part the series has held for me during parts of it: it was Sonic Adventure 2 that effectively pulled me down through the rabbit hole, I spent genuinely countless hours playing it through those years, and the physical version of this soundtrack was the first of its kind I ever purchased and thus became even more special as I could play these songs out loud through my CD player (and I am glad I did spend my pocket money on it - this goes for well over £200 in Discogs now).

We music fans, by default, have special records that we cling to because they're attached to parts of our life that made us who we were: albums where we get emotional just by hearing certain melodies because they take us back to years ago when we heard them brand new, where we know each lyric by heart like they reflect the secrets of the universe for our ears only, and through which we relive all those emotions over and over again while we dive into the sounds that are so familiar that they're where we feel most comfortable. This collection of songs here is from a cheesy video game starring a bunch of Saturday morning cartoons, but it has that exact same effect for me as any of those other, more "serious" albums I hold on particularly personally resonant pedestals; even when the melodies come with mental images of bouncing around blocky graphics or the lyrics I know by heart are along the lines of "Got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow" or "Don't call me Knuckles, gimme your props". Sonic Adventure 2 is my favourite Sonic game and among my top video games of all time, this soundtrack is by far my number one game soundtrack of all time, and both of those factoids represent much more to me than those phrases can convey.

I took part in a small Sonic convention in the UK once, that had somehow managed to nab Johnny Gioeli and Jun Senoue as guests of honour. As part of their appearance, they performed a live concert as the official final event of the convention. If "Live and Learn" hadn't already become a classic part of Sonic history, it certainly became such through the experience of hearing a big room full of fans belting out its chorus in unison with the duo. It's one of those moments in time I'll never forget, and nearly every song out of the sixty here has vivid memories just as strong as that, even if tied to smaller moments across the few years of my life where these songs were genuinely relevant for me. Those may have just been particularly geeky early teenage years, but I have nothing but wonderful memories of that period in time, and this album is time machine that takes me back to them.

Rating: 10/10

American Music Club - California (1988)

 

1) Firefly; 2) Somewhere; 3) Laughingstock; 4) Lonely; 5) Pale Skinny Girl; 6) Blue and Grey Shirt; 7) Bad Liquor; 8) Now You're Defeated; 9) Jenny; 10) Western Sky; 11) Highway 5; 12) Last Harbor

Dry and desolate sign of things to come, more than a record that would fully support itself.

Key tracks: "Firefly", "Laughingstock", "Western Sky"

Normally when you namedrop California, you try to evoke something sunny, luxurious and Hollywood-gorgeous. When American Music Club evoke the state's name, they're still as grayscale and miserable as ever, downing another drink in some dingy corner bar as the night starts creeping towards dawn. But then, they were a Californian band - they probably know better.

American Music Club albums are relatively scarce in Europe (I actually bought this in California, and in the band's native San Francisco to boot), so my experience on their initial years is still quite limited and I might end up revising this review one day in the distant future. But I don't think it's been entirely coincidental that it's hard to find this group on this side of the bond. Theirs is a really apt name because they - and particularly Eitzel, lyrically - draw a lot of influence from America socially and geographically; I've been reading other people's thoughts on California while trying to organise my own thoughts for this review and the common thread I spotted through all the positive reviews is how closely the music is threaded to a certain kind of American being, that you almost have to have that cultural experience to really unearth its secrets. All AMC albums pirouette around this but California goes as far naming itself so directly, and even if the songs aren't explicitly about the state, they tie themselves to a very particular kind of inhabited context, and Eitzel isn't too bothered about trying to make his own voice more universal. Not to beat around the bush but California leaves me a little distant and I am genuinely wondering if that extra lived-in context is what I'm lacking - reading the lyrics and listening to the music I get the picture, but I don't get it.

 
But from what I've experienced from American Music Club, there's probably a more rational explanation for my opinion too. The rough idea is that you can somewhat split the American Music Club chronology to three eras: the classic 90s album trilogy, the 80s period that served as the build-up to it, and the reunion years long after. And from that, you can figure out where I stand with California. Apart from the odds-and-sods collection United Kingdom, California is the band's last album of the 1980s and so things have more or less clicked into place by this stage but we're still a step or two away from the albums that drew me into the band. They're leaning a little closer to americana than alternative at this stage, but otherwise this isn't far from what Everclear or Mercury would showcase and the right elements are all present: Eitzel's charisma is undeniable, the omnipresent melancholy is gripping, you've got the few lively rock numbers to break up the pace, and the subtle and dry textural work that's synonymous with this band is accounted for - particularly with Bruce Kaphan's gorgeous slide guitars that adorn so many songs on the record and are always a highlight whenever they appear.

But California is just a shy step away from being in the same tier as the aforementioned next couple of albums. The majority of the songs here are teetering on the edge of great, and would just need a little bit of a push to get over that edge: "Somewhere" is the archetypical AMC early-album rocker but one that's still finding its feet, "Western Sky" is almost achingly beautiful, "Now You're Defeated" seems to get cut off a minute away from reaching its peak, and so forth. You can hear the potential and it's clear the band could go all the way with a little more push, but they're still a tad short of either experience or confidence. There isn't anything genuinely weak here either: "Bad Liquor" comes close because while it's one of the album's few jolts of energy, it comes across like a borderline parodic song by a fictitious band from a TV sketch (and Eitzel's bad guy act with the "what are you doing here, bitch" is so ill-fitting), and that's not an AMC tract I particularly care for. On the flipside there's a few times where the band reach something excellent, like when "Laughingstock" switches gears after its fake ending and becomes genuinely excellent, or just the entirety of the sweetly jangling and pretty "Firefly" which is arguably the best song here. 

While you could argue that it peaks early, the further California descends into its second half where its wallowing becomes slower and slower, the more absorbing it becomes. It vibes better with the band's strengths and the barebones acoustic number "Jenny", the ghostly "Highway 5" and barren "Last Harbor" make for an effective ending. It's a dry and desolate record, and its closing steps drill that point across, whereas the first half is maybe more instant. I feel like I've not paid enough credit to California's strengths where they are due because if you do give it time and patience, it does leave an impact - but I'm always left at an arm's distance from the songs and they still slip out of mind too much, even while the record is on. Maybe it's because I'm not geographically equipped to handle the album, maybe it's because I'm still waiting for the band to assemble the puzzle now that they've found where the pieces go. But I find myself thinking about the other records whenever I listen to this one, and I find myself listening to a decently good album that mostly just reminds me why I really like the later ones.

Rating: 6/10

Kent - Verkligen (1996)

1) Avtryck; 2) Kräm (Så närä får ingen gå); 3) Gravitation; 4) Istället för ljud; 5) 10 minuter (För mig själv); 6) En timme en minut; 7) Indianer; 8) Halka; 9) Thinner; 10) Vi kan väl vänta tils imorgon

Kent discover how to write great songs on the next step of their steady climb to success.

Key tracks: "Avtryck", "Kräm (Så närä får ingen gå)", "En timme en minut"

Talking about the first set of Kent albums isn’t particularly thrilling, simply because they’re such a steady evolution of the same set of ideas, improving incrementally. The self-titled debut record a year before had a good sound but the band were still inexperienced and hadn’t quite discovered their own voice or a consistent songwriting angle. Verkligen is more or less the same as before in its sound, but Kent have now learned how to write the occasional cracking tune.

That’s a bit of a glib statement admittedly, because despite the loss of rhythm guitarist Martin Roos and the temporary quartet line-up, Kent sound bigger and dare I say more ambitious on Verkligen. The sound and the band's playing are a lot more dynamic and multi-dimensional than on the debut, leading to a more varied set of songs - including the band’s first epic extended jams which would become a traditional appearance on their albums afterwards (“En timme en minut” more honestly by way of a rock-out finale, “Vi kan väl väntä tils imorgon” with a fake-out ending). There’s more additional instrumentation beyond the guitar-bass-drums core of the band, and “Avtryck” starting the album by quickly drowning its opening guitar riff with a string section is almost certainly an intentional message from the band indicating that they’re thinking bigger now. Kent haven’t strayed too far from the gloriously mid-90s britrocking debut, but they’ve built upon it: growth, not change.

 

By far the biggest difference between one year earlier and now is that Kent have come up with some really good songs under their wing this time. "Kräm (Så närä får ingen gå)" most obviously, starting the band's climb in popularity and it does absolutely sound like a hit single would: punchy and straight to the point, hooks for days and gloriously nineties guitar walls. If "Avtryck" signalled the band was aiming for a wider scale, "Kräm" is the proof that they've started to discover additional dimensions in their actual songwriting, even if the song itself is a relatively straightforward rocker. But compare absolutely anything on the debut to "Kräm" and it's clear the band's approach to melody, dynamics and flow of the song are on an entirely different level from before - and while it may not be so immortal when compared against the wider discography, it's still a great song that gives out a rush of wild energy whenever it plays. Its big anthem hooks are exciting in an almost primal way, hitting that feel-good spot in your brain; and it sounds like a band hungry for world domination, semi-accidentally stumbling onto the launch codes to do so.

 

Verkligen is generally at its best when it keeps the energy high. "10 minuter (För mig själv)" is basically a "Kräm" reprise but little more leaning towards its relentless energy, "Avtryck" grows subtly in its urgency and its strength as it marches along (and as an opener it's a great starting bang for the record), and the punctuating guitar licks of "Halka" are ridiculous enough to work as genuinely fun hooks (a more cynical mind would say they're repeating the trick from "Stenbrott" off the previous record, but it's done better here). "En timme en minut" is the clear overall highlight, as Kent take their first step towards their big centrepiece songs. Its eight minutes of dynamically building, sustained rock-out are absolutely great, with different arrangement details during the long instrumental sections emerging and disappearing from way of others in a fashion that stops it from being monotonous. The band's performance - and Berg's vocals especially - sounds far more grown up and focused than the rest of the record, with an ear for production and arrangement that shows their growing desire to enrichen their own soundworld in service of their songs. Kent are still taking gentle steps towards being a great band throughout Verkligen, and "En timme en minut" is their first unequivocally great song and the album's real key track  - a sign of things to come

 

It's where the band retract back to that mid-90s slow and moody guitar angst where Verkligen shows most obviously that it's not too far from the debut. The more meandering songs are more about their mood and sound than genuinely memorable songwriting, and like on the debut it's a case of too many things being cut from the same cloth that's starting to wear thin. Thus, while e.g. "Istället för ljud" and "Gravitation" are enjoyable as they pass by on record, their sloggish pace never reaches any heights of real excitement even when broken by the occasional loud power chord chorus, blending together from one forlorn guitar melody to another - and "Indianer" and "Thinner" later on aren't even trying to stand out by the sounds of them. You can hear what Kent are going for with them but these crawling mood cuts aren't where the band's strengths lie at this stage - even though they seem to think otherwise. But credit where credit is due, they've saved the best for the last and the melancholy but bombastic "Vi kan väl vänta tils imorgon" is a really good closer for the album, especially once it lifts off in preparation for its double ending. Lumping it among the slowburners isn't necessarily all that befitting because there's far more life to it than any of the other songs listed in this paragraph, but that's primarily because it does the right thing of not sticking to a slowcore feel as its sole purpose. Just like "En timme en minut" it feels like a culmination of this particular stage of Kent: both songs are where the band find everything clicking in place.

 

But on Verkligen, they're still a work in progress. I started this review by mentioning it's hard to talk about the first three Kent albums independently because they all form one very linear line of development, and Verkligen suffers the most from it because it's less Empire Strikes Back and more Two Towers as the trilogy mid-piece: a story with no clear start or end. It's catching a glimpse of the band at the path to greatness, but still figuring out the right fork in the road to take. While it has its strengths and couple of particular Kent classics, there's very rarely a time where I'd opt for Verkligen over Isola if I'm in the mood of listening to Kent at their most 90s. Everything great that occurs on Verkligen, they'd pull off better elsewhere in the near future - and so Verkligen slipping between the cracks isn't an indictment of its quality as such, but largely due to its place in Kent's development.

Rating: 6/10