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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Breathy pop, ala St Etienne, March 7, 2003
An unexpected pleasure from an unexpected source. If you like St Etienne, you will certainly like Club 8! Definitely give this one a shot, its a wonderful album!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wistful & wise, October 24, 2008
There's a delicate magic to the music of Club 8. Comparisons to bands such as Saint Etienne are fair enough, but there's an extra, irresistible, melancholy undertone to these floating-like-a-dreamy-summer-cloud songs. The secret is in Karolina Komstedt's wispy, little girl voice, which conveys both a terribly vulnerable innocence & a wounded world-weariness. She makes you feel as if she's seen it all, somehow retaining a child's wide-eyed wonder even as she acknowledges the pain & loss of the adult world. It's not that she's immune to further suffering, it's just that she's learned she can live with it. Strangely enough, this makes even the saddest of these songs shimmer with a mysterious joy.
Most highly recommended!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Club 8 goes to Manchester via London....and packs light!, December 10, 2008
A direct quote from the twangy guitar riff of David Lynch's Twin Peaks begins Album #4 from the Swedish duo of Johan Angergård and Karolina Komstedt. "We're Simple Minds" a laid back pop song propelled by snare rim clicks gradually opens into the interiors of what is either repressed love or a je ne sais quoi a girl feels for another (since Angergård is the lyricist and Komstedt the vocalist, a transposition that only serves to add to the ambivalence of the song).
"Spring Came, Rain Fell" sounds like a cheery tv commercial in print, until you are hit with the opening lines of Club 8's signature hidden darkness: "Waiting for the fall, to take us all."
Angergård sings on "Close to me" a 90s Manchester scenester sounding piece, where "Baby, I'm not sure if this is love" returns to Karolina.
"The Chance I Deserve" is a poppy bassy dance tune with radio voice, minimal distorted bass, and programmed drums and handclaps.
"I Give Up" is an experimental fragment, so reminiscent of St. Etienne's early days, that is to resurface in full later in track 11 "The Girl With The Northern Soul Collection", a polished quiet shuffle using the rhythms that became so popular in the Manchester sound of the early 90s.
"Friends and Lovers" is a dubby bare bones track with Komstedt on radio thin voice.
Angergård sings of teenage love in "Teenage Life" while Komstedt revives the voice-lone guitar-handclap combo that she used so successfully in "I Don't Need Anyone" (from the album Club 8).
The set comes to a close with "We Set Ourselves Free" a song framed by a bass riff that veers dangerously close to St. Etienne's "Nothing Can Stop Us" bass riff.
All in all, a threadbare offering from Club 8. Compared to their other albums, orchestration and electronics take a backseat as rim clicks, guitar, and a trap set (drums) populate most of the 12 songs.
Though I greatly enjoyed the first two songs, I felt this was a point in Club 8's discography where they were in danger of succumbing to the trap St. Etienne fell into (for a few albums): when their sound became more about Sarah's voice then about the band as a unit. Happily, my apprehensions were chucked out the window with their superb following album "Strangely Beautiful."
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