Lugnet
s/t

Lugnet means "the calm" if translated from English, it is also the place where this band rehearse their music – I would guess it is a part of the Swedish town called Falun but there was no info on this in the press sheet. It is a self-titled debut by this quintet, a debut that has a pretty cool artwork that would suggest that we are dealing with a band looking backwards rather than forwards. The cover also gives a sense of movie poster, maybe due to the band’s video with actress Christina Lindberg that did well on some video show – something that is worthy of mentioning for those interested and of course you can see the video at the end of this review.

But what about the music? I hear you ask, and what about it? First of all, the cover suggests it correctly, the quintet is living in the past and fans of nostalgic music will most likely recognise big names of the seventies in the music. One thing I can say is that fortunately it is not as poor as a band called Rival Sons which I have seen them compared with, this nostalgia is way less unbearable. But sure, creatively it is not really exciting as you will realise that you have heard all this before and it was certainly edgier at that time – this feel a bit overworked and too true to form to really excite anyone longing for a fresh perspective. The sound is at least modern, as it was recorded in the past but remastered 2015, and the vocals are good.

As someone who grew up with parents enjoying this kind of music I find this quite appealing. But I also find that it starts to loose its appeal the more I hear it as it is creatively very uninteresting. And now there are those romanticising the past that disagree with my opinion, I have received many mails when I have been negative about uncreative bands like Rival Sons, Bullet, Bonafide and so on but as I reviewer I have to weight not only how nice it is to listen to, it have to be compared with its peers and originality is certainly something that is very important and bands without originality will have a hard time reaching any higher rating. Amongst all the aspects that needs to be judged when reviewing an album is how personal a band feels, meaning that their new album must give a novel feel and that is something this album doesn’t do so it doesn’t really matter how well they do their songs as they don’t really evoke that sort of feeling anyway. The bands they copy certainly had an edge these guys are missing, nevertheless I like this album but as a reviewer it is hard to really see the point.

In the end I think many people will enjoy this album and find it excellent and so on, and from a purely musical standpoint it is quite good even though it lacks the edge of the bands that pioneered this kind of music long ago. I think all the songs are good, the album is musically interesting but creatively uninteresting meaning that it is a good listen for a while, until you realise that it is something you have heard before and once again start contemplating why so many musicians seems so devoid of creativity and original thinking.

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