album of the week - 10.2

Taken By Trees

East of Eden

Rough Trade (2009)

why you'll love it: Beautiful voice, interesting departure from straightforward pop

why you'll hate it: boring lyrics, most of the experimentation doesn't pay off

Despite her obscurity, there sure is a lot of trivia about Victoria Bergsman, and her second solo album . The nation of Sweden knows her best as the former vocalist for indie-pop band, The Concretes. The US can spot her voice as being not Peter, Bjorn, or John's in the modest hit, "Young Folks". Her first Taken By Trees album, wasn't much of a splash, but a good piece of work.

Her second effort, called East of Eden, is again preceded; not by reputation this time, but the company Victoria has chosen to bring along. The album has a strong Pakistani influence, which seems a bit arbitrary to me. The percussion and windwork sound quite nice, but extended bits of field recordings and traditional singing feel tacked on, especially when juxtaposed with run of the mill love song lyrics.

The oddness doesn't end there. I couldn't help but think how much the song "Anna" sounds like an Animal Collective song, and was even more confused when Victoria would go on to cover an Animal Collective song later in the album. One that is only a few months old, no less. It turns out Panda Bear himself sings on "Anna", so my curiosity was justified there. By the way, the cover of "My Girls" is rubbish. It sounds like it was hastily thrown together with little care.

Even though some of the songs on this album sound nice, it's burdened by gimmick, and left me wondering what the point of it all was. Bergsman doesn't need a fresh new style or celebrity hook ups. She has a wonderful voice and a natural talent for writing modest and competent music. This is a case of experimentation just becoming fluff.