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Frequently Bought Together
Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Stranded |
| 2. Days |
| 3. I can try |
| 4. Forward is all |
| 5. Albatross |
| 6. High and low |
| 7. A remote view |
| 8. Sandy dunes |
| 9. Small parade |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I'm sorry, as soon as I know that a band comes from Sweden
I immediately think of ABBA. I just can't help myself!
For a few moments during the piano introduction to the opening
track on Sambassadeur's new album 'European', I could have been
forgiven but the notion is abruptly swept away as the song
kicks in. This fine music lacks the polish and precision of
their forbears remarkable canon. Not to say that it is rough
and ready in comparison - It has its own character and one that
I am more than happy to have had the chance to get to know.
Anna Persson has, despite its lack of tonal colour, a perfectly
serviceable voice which suits the four-square nature of the music
very well. For a sublimely strange minute at the heart of 'Stranded'
a clarinet (at least I think it's a clarinet) seems to be about to
burst into the opening verse of Mike Batt's 'Bright Eyes' from the
film 'Watership Down' but it is swept away by Ms Persson and an almost
heavenly chorus before it has the chance to manifest itself in full.
The drums have a particularly vivid presence throughout.
Some might say that they lack subtlety but in a curious way
I think they contribute to the music's difficult-to-pin-down
atmosphere - somewhere between a day out at the seaside or
a picnic in a field full of cows on a high mountain summer
pasture. I'm struggling here but bear with me!
It is just those qualities which makes it creakily in danger
of falling flat on its face which give the final product
its elusive charm. (Listen to the sax solo on 'I Can Try'
for a particularly alluring but alarming example!)
'Forward Is All' really shouldn't work at all. In some ways
it sounds not unlike a 1970's Eurovision Song Contest entry
(and not a contender for the crown!). Cheesy strings,
quasi-orchestral percussion and Ms Persson's monotonous
rendition of the melody unite in a small but perfectly-formed
masterpiece of banal overstatement. I loved it!
The un-easy listening experience continues with 'Albatross',
a song so unwittingly strange that I even began to wonder if
the band might be having a joke at my expense but then something
quite extraordinary happens. As the big bird disappears over
the horizon we are confronted by a composition of real beauty.
'High and Low' is a truly charming song; the pure simplicity of
the folksy melody culminating in a coda of incandescent energy.
'A Remote View' is a pretty little instrumental which would make
a very fine soundrack to a documentary film about water voles.
Final track 'Small Parade' leads us gently by the hand through
a hole in the hedge to a secret garden where we spend the rest
of the afternoon basking in the warm sunshine and decorating
one another's hair and eyelids with wild flowers. It's all true!
Highly Recommended.
I immediately think of ABBA. I just can't help myself!
For a few moments during the piano introduction to the opening
track on Sambassadeur's new album 'European', I could have been
forgiven but the notion is abruptly swept away as the song
kicks in. This fine music lacks the polish and precision of
their forbears remarkable canon. Not to say that it is rough
and ready in comparison - It has its own character and one that
I am more than happy to have had the chance to get to know.
Anna Persson has, despite its lack of tonal colour, a perfectly
serviceable voice which suits the four-square nature of the music
very well. For a sublimely strange minute at the heart of 'Stranded'
a clarinet (at least I think it's a clarinet) seems to be about to
burst into the opening verse of Mike Batt's 'Bright Eyes' from the
film 'Watership Down' but it is swept away by Ms Persson and an almost
heavenly chorus before it has the chance to manifest itself in full.
The drums have a particularly vivid presence throughout.
Some might say that they lack subtlety but in a curious way
I think they contribute to the music's difficult-to-pin-down
atmosphere - somewhere between a day out at the seaside or
a picnic in a field full of cows on a high mountain summer
pasture. I'm struggling here but bear with me!
It is just those qualities which makes it creakily in danger
of falling flat on its face which give the final product
its elusive charm. (Listen to the sax solo on 'I Can Try'
for a particularly alluring but alarming example!)
'Forward Is All' really shouldn't work at all. In some ways
it sounds not unlike a 1970's Eurovision Song Contest entry
(and not a contender for the crown!). Cheesy strings,
quasi-orchestral percussion and Ms Persson's monotonous
rendition of the melody unite in a small but perfectly-formed
masterpiece of banal overstatement. I loved it!
The un-easy listening experience continues with 'Albatross',
a song so unwittingly strange that I even began to wonder if
the band might be having a joke at my expense but then something
quite extraordinary happens. As the big bird disappears over
the horizon we are confronted by a composition of real beauty.
'High and Low' is a truly charming song; the pure simplicity of
the folksy melody culminating in a coda of incandescent energy.
'A Remote View' is a pretty little instrumental which would make
a very fine soundrack to a documentary film about water voles.
Final track 'Small Parade' leads us gently by the hand through
a hole in the hedge to a secret garden where we spend the rest
of the afternoon basking in the warm sunshine and decorating
one another's hair and eyelids with wild flowers. It's all true!
Highly Recommended.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Heard them on Mark and Stuart on Radio 2 and was not disappointed really easy to listen to very warm with the orchestra accompanying on many tracks.
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