Envelopes: Here Comes the Wind
Monday, 18 Feb 2008 21:51
Franco-Swedes Envelopes offer a second album of quirkily floating indie.
BRILLE, out February 18th.
In a nutshell…
Upbeat and good-humoured indie jangles.
What's it all about?
This is the second LP from Swedish-French five-piece Envelopes, following 2006's Demon and a fresh enough journey through the pleasantries of canonical indie. The band have already drawn comparisons with Architecture In Helsinki yet realistically have a more mature, less prickly sound that the Australians.
Here Comes The Wind is an album of many varying noises, from those softly-twisted guitar riffs of the Hefner-esque Freejazz to the campfirey sombreness of Boat, or I'd Like 2 C U which may well have been a tune off the Albert Hammond solo album.
Who's it by?
Having recorded their debut album at band-mate Henrik Orrling's family farm in Sweden, Envelopes, though unfamiliar in most
quarters, have spent the past four years spreading their gospel of indie-pop.
Most notably the band are label-mates with fellow Swedes the Knife though – unlike the enigmatic duo – they drop any straight electro in favour of a more guitar-centred sound. The band share singing duties between Henrik and Audrey Pic with the latter's vocals owing more than a small debt to the sound of Ladytron's Helen Marnie.
As an example…
"I didn't have any trouble/And now I had enough of it/And you read my palm/And in it, I'm not leaving without you." –Party
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys?
The chances are very slim. NME awards maybe, but this is generally a little too niche and offbeat for the mainstream market.
What the others say
"Envelopes are the kind of band who if asked to draw a line, would grab three brightly coloured pens and squiggle them simultaneously about the page. Their songs are wilfully wayward, full of pretty guitar melodies that suddenly go skronk, flailing drums and keyboards that skitter about like hyperactive toddlers." – Guardian
"The impersonation becomes too mechanical... exposing a melody that's not quite up to the job." – Independent
So is it any good?
Envelopes are lucky enough to have in Party the single of the year so far - an arch and feisty tune with a cunning false-start but brilliantly danceable body. But sadly the rest of the album fails to live up to this.
Maybe it's Envelopes' willingness to slip so neatly through the fences separating noughties-electro and the punkier side of New Wave without ever stamping their own definitive mark.
Ask the question 'what do Envelopes sound like?' and a short answer is hard to find. They drift too easily about and on the whole their songs seem to be lacking the killer bite to make them truly infectious.
There's no bad music here but what's needed are a few more hit singles before this finds itself at the top of the CD rack.
6/10
Mat Strowbridge
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