Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Hell on Wheels - The Odd Church (2006)

It occurs to me that perhaps I have wasted my life mastering the English language. Let's start here:

Åsa: "She said: I saw you last night on the telly/I heard you on the radio/"
Rickard: "And I picked up your signals up through the hairs that are my aerials. That lately have been working so, so"

What does this mean? Who the hell knows. It's got a great little guitar sound and great percussion running underneath it, and great echo vocal effects on top of it. Get on and enjoy the ride!

Here's another line:

Rickard: "Someday soon I'm going to leave this wicked circle/"
Rickard and Åsa: "My days are getting awful and dull/"
Rickard: "And condemn myself back to Scandinavia/"
Rickard and Åsa: "Where the ashtrays are full"

What does this mean? Dude, their names are Rickard and Åsa. I could probably swear at them in English and they would give me directions to the Dairy Mart. Good old Rickard sounds so much like Frank Black that... well, he just sounds a lot like him. (I was an English major and I can't express myself as well as our fjörd-loving, grammatically challenged friends in my native tongue. Of course, I am also an idiot.) Back to our Nordic heroes:

Rickard: "This recorder has stopped recording/It's been 15 years it's still not working/You have got to stop your mumbling/My ears have already been cut off"

All right, it's not exactly broken English. In fact, if there were one mother reference in the above lyric, I might seriously consider that this whole project just might be a big, fat Frank Black/Kim Deal joke. Although if that were the case, I'm sure Åsa's boyfriend Orld, her brother Njörd, and cousin Erik might have something to say about this to Black Francis and Mrs. Murphy.

CD Placement Rating: This is the third great album I've heard in a row. Directly to the car CD changer. Think Pixies with an accent, great guitar riffs and well arranged indie rock/pop. You will like this. Yet another great call from All Music's column "Under the Radar in '06."

Merch Rating: Åsa is now living in our house until she gets her green card. I gave Rickard my Abba box set and some roofies to quell his nerves. I co-signed Orld's car loan once I listened to "As We Play". (Any song with a refrain the begins with "The Act We Act....") And Johan (the drummer) has finally restored honor to a name so long ago besmirched by The Smurfs (stupid Pee-wee....)

- Snïlch