Comprising of members of other Massproducktion bands, My
Orchard, The Concretes, and Marit Bergman Band, The Soft
Eyes debut album (released in co-operation with Instant Feelings
Recording) is predominantly an acoustic set with something
of country influence. It opens with the quite lovely One
Of A Kind, with its finger-picked guitar, touching melody
and strong harmonies. In contrast, Love Power has
a more experimental feel with a slightly unusual melody over
scratchy guitar. From hereon, however, there's a definite
country feel to much of the proceedings with Attitude
Problem being a mid-paced alt.country number with added
harmonica, and Beautiful Future showing as a slower
version with a melodica in the background.
Never The Last Time breaks things up though as it has a more My Bloody Valentine-feel with its almost whispery vocal over a slightly distorted guitar. So perhaps it should come as no surprise to find that Let's Dance To Our Own Beats also includes a rather decent acoustic cover of the My Bloody Valentine song, When You Sleep. Definitely worth checking out.
Things gets more country-ish again on Blast From The Past, although interestingly enough the backing vocals show a Loveless influence. Me And The Others has a clattery beat and neat, yet somewhat forlorn sounding riff, but the harmonica comes out to play again on Far, which is perhaps the most country-ish number here. Now this is not really my genre, but this is a very pretty, heartfelt number as Johan Sigeud sings…
"I let it happen, let myself drift
Now there's a scar in my heart"
…before we discover there's something of a twist at the end. Along with One Of A Kind and When You Sleep, it's one of the highlights of the album.
Let's Dance To Our Own Beats closes with Central Station, which has a 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) type picked guitar intro, and Let Us All Act Psychotic which has a suitably eerie feel.
All in all, a promising album.
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