THE LEGENDS [MUSIC REVIEW]
The Legends… who are these people? Here is what we do know: they come from Sweden, their first gig was at The Radio Department in Stockholm, there are nine of them, we don’t know their names, they formed in January 2003. This is seriously the only info that could be found online. This makes you wonder, just who do these people think they are? What gives them the right to be so mysterious? I have no idea, but they sure do rock your pop rock socks off. Despite the enduring mystery that the website for their label does not even dispel, they seem to have a happy talent for busting out excelent pop rock tunes. Their album insert is equally strange and mysterious, listing the lyrics of only 3 songs (their favorite? hardest to understand? who knows?) and contains nothing in the way of a band biography. It gives the photographers name, but not so much as the initials of a lead singer or bass player. So the impersonal identity of the band, the members depicted as carboard cutouts in the album art, the complete dirth of any real information all leads to a big fat pop concept band. They seem to be a force that just sprang up out of a need to have a band and then an album magically appeared because that force existed. But, how good is the album? Does the apparent DIY concept magic really hold up? I think so.
At a quick first listen it all sounds good, but not that good. It has a kind of fuzzy strokes sound to it, but more upbeat. The whole thing is just one big rhythmic, fuzzy tiger bounding across the soundscape. It sounds a little British, a little Hives (fellow Swedes), and even a little angsty teen punk rockish Saves the Day in there, but it really quickly grows on you. After a couple listens it seems much less formulaic. The songs become more distinct in the big fuzzed out picture. They all have a very distinct flavor even though they are made with the same ingredients. You start picking up on little undertones, and flourishes, that compete with the monotonous 2 note bass lines. Perhaps it is all just a product of the fact that whenever you have 9 people trying to make one song you are going to end up with lots of little random fluorishes and off beats. However, they do it well and most importanly it all sounds good. They really do achieve the pop rock goal, keep things moving, be catchy, and be entertianing. They pull that off better than a lot of other indie pop rock bands that just don’t make the cut.
The album starts off really strong. The opening track, “Call it ours,” is probably the most formulaic and indistinct but perhaps the most catchy, a good hook for the rest of the album. The same style is echoed on track 6, “Everything you say,” but different and stronger. Definitely a little more involved and interesting, switching between a very pop riff and a more rocking Strokes sound. “Everything you say” starts out slow and muted with a quick little clap track and wimpy guitar strumming, but quickly blows up into raging full frontal pop music. With no knowledge of the band at all it is impossible to read anything into the lyrics. “There and back again” (one of the songs with lyrics listed in the album insert) there seems to be something of a break up song. But who’s singing it? Who wrote it? Nope we got nothing. Probably the lyrically strongest song is “Nothing to be done,” which seems to be a simple testament to living your own life. “And we’ll leave it alone / Cause its not our story / We’ve got enough right here.” That seems like a good idea, if I am picking up the right meaning. Let’s not try to imitate other sounds, let’s just do our own thing, we have enough right here in our nine damned people monster sized pop rock swedish mystery mobile of a band. If that is what they are doing, then bravo and well done. They have worked that in to a solid album. Maybe we can expect to hear more from them? A name or two? A second album? Who knows? So for the time being I will have my third ear tuned to Sweden to hear if anythign crops up.