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Rating: Lately, when I insert this CD into the player, a flashing message appears on the stereo display saying "Nooo stoppp, pleaseee..."
Indeed, there would be reason to complain, given that this album has been spinning in the cushy air of my room for three consecutive years with record averages.
On the Kent website, it says "site of the greatest Sweden rock band."
Now, I don't believe they are the best Swedish rock band ever, but there is no doubt about the quality of their albums: introspective, sharp, melancholic, yet also contentious, angry… with style.
Hagnesta Hill is the natural and precise evolution of Isola.
And, like Isola, it is sung entirely in English by the wonderful voice of Joakim Berg, always excellent at expressing his deepest feelings in words, translating them into a language not his own.
Compared to the previous work, the sound has become more complex and less defined: that is, more reverb and atmospheric sounds (see various ballads including the wonderful Quiet Heart) and also a good dose of electronics (Cowboys, Whistle Song) without ever overdoing it.
This album cannot be classified as electronic, although, as mentioned, there has been a slight shift in that direction.
In some parts, the desire to reach the early '90s Depeche Mode is evident both in the words, "I tried to make you a believer / But you're not a receiver" (Whistle Song), and with a sound set on late '80s rhythmic bases that, mixed with today's new sounds and some spot-on riffs, create something highly catchy (Just Like Money).
But, the turning point and the true key to the album lies in the slower tracks (Kevlar Soul, Rollercoaster, Stop Me June), which hark back to the best ballads by the Smashing Pumpkins (Adore period), where samples-drum machine-4 well-played guitar chords create a small masterpiece.
In the lyrics and notes, we can find the classic silent cold that the band introduced us to in '98, plus an incredible desire to scream a desperate need for love (to write stuff like that, I think the singer had to get dumped three or four times...).
In conclusion: an album less sparse than Isola and more complete.
It might appeal to those who like the following bands: Depeche Mode, Interpol, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead (The Bends).
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 The King Is Dead (04:16)
Thin december air is like the dry ice smoke
You'll come to your senses or inhale and
choke
My IQ allows me to brush you aside
You're zeros and ones, you're wrong where
I'm right
Now, the tyrant is dead and his lady is free
I am going ahead with the reinvention of me
Now the king lies here dead, now the king
lies here dead
It's not as wet as the rain or
as cold as the snow
It drives him in hard to the sane and the
simple soul
I take a charge at my chance
you know how it is
Let go of my hand
you know how it is
Now, the tyrant is dead and his lady is free
I am going ahead with the reinvention of me
And my IQ allows me to brush you aside
Now, the tyrant is dead and his lady is free
I am going ahead with the reinvention of me
Now the king lies here dead, now the king
lies here dead
02 Revolt III (03:10)
Svagt s� skakar mina ben
Och flickan med TV-nerver ler
Som om jag bryr mig!
S�nk mitt hj�rta som en sten
Ge mig en k�ftsm�ll jag �r feg
Som om jag bryr mig
S� �kar vi igen
Jag �r fartblind, kriminell
Du �r aktuell, du br�nns
Som om jag bryr mig!
Som om jag bryr mig!
Jag har alltid varit klen
S� ge mig Revolt I, II och III
Som om jag bryr mig
S� �kar vi igen
Jag �r fartblind, kriminell
Du �r aktuell, du br�nns
Som om jag bryr mig!
Som om jag bryr mig!
Som om jag bryr mig!
Som om jag bryr mig!
03 Music Non Stop (04:34)
Everybody gets a second in the sun
I have a feeling mine has just begun
Music non stop when I close my eyes
Clarity born from a compromise
And you are almost like me
So why don't you dance to the music
I hear inside my head
Why don't you dance to the music
It's the soundtrack for the end
I'm looking for a place to lie in wait
I quit my job to find a perfect fate
Music non stop when I close my eyes
I need some time alone I found a carpark that is home
You're almost like me
So why don't you dance to the music
I hear inside my head
Why don't you dance to the music
It's the soundtrack for the end
Everybody gets a second in the sun
I have a feeling mine has just begun
Music non stop when I close my eyes
Clarity born from a compromise
And you're almost like me
So why don't you dance to the music
I hear inside my head
Why don't you dance to the music
It's the soundtrack for the end
So why don't you dance to the music
I hear inside my head
Why don't you dance to the music
It's the soundtrack for the end
04 Kevlar Soul (04:26)
Summertime
Summertime
I'm the silence as the wind blows
My land is your land we are free
If you listen close you hear my teardrops fall
My dream is yours
I have time on my side
Chorus:
Making diamonds of coal
She put a hole, through my kevlarsoul
and my heart slowly dies
She put a hole, through my kevlarsoul
It gets lonely and cold
Summertime
I am violence as the rain falls
My land is my land only mine
If I listen close I hear your teardrops fall
Summertime
ChorusYour dream is mine
06 Heavenly Junkies (04:04)
I saw a film
future visions of now
They changed the end
cause they always do somehow
Saw you tonight
for the first time in years
Crushed and thin
but your guardian angel's with you
judging by the way you walk
And I get a feeling
it wasn't that easy
Keeping a place like that
forever you fool me
you're a heavenly junkie
We live in the dreams you had
I get a feeling
It wasn't that easy
to be who you were
I saw a film
about the violence in men
I press rewind
Take it frame by frame again
Saw you tonight
life still danced in your eyes
You're creased and lined
but your guardian angel's with you
judging by the way you talk
08 Cowboys (05:46)
Jag drömde om
En barndomsvän igår
Som telenäten drömmer
Om svalorna i vår
Jag vaknade av bruset
Från maskiner i djup sömn
Jag vaknade så lycklig
Över att äntligen ha drömt
Hon vinkar genom ett fönster
Hennes mun är som ett sår
Så går hjärtat mitt sönder
Det har varit ett ensamt år
Jag ska aldrig ignorera dig igen
Jag ska aldrig nånsin glömma hur det känns
Mina nyårslöften
Jag filmar nu
Stora känslor stora ord
Men allt av vikt jag säger
Har jag stulit ur en bok
Jag läste nåt om kyssar
Nånting som alla vet
Men som dom aldrig lyckas fånga
I filmerna man ser
Hon vinkar genom ett fönster
Hennes mun är som ett sår
Så går hjärtat mitt sönder
Det har varit ett ensamt år
Jag ska aldrig ignorera dig igen
Jag ska aldrig ignorera kärleken
Mina nyårslöften
12 Whistle Song (07:56)
There is something in her eyes
that's making me scared
It's clinging to my shirt now
like static in her hair
And something here is wrong
I heard it when she spoke
Her dust flows through my veins now
and I'm yesterday�s joke
chorus:
And it seems impossible to meet her simple needs
She breathes invincible
and it's giving me the creeps
She's still the wild one here, the incendiary soul
She is in flame and I am cold
god I'm getting old
She is talking through a yawn
and the radio is on
I listen through the thin walls
and someone's whistling along
There is something in the air
Squeezing out sparks
The striplight flickers and then dies
and leaves us in the dark
chorus
And I'd make you a believer
But you're not a receiver
And you're now a believer
And you're not a receiver
And I'll make you a believer
But you're not a receiver
And I'll make you a believer
But you're not a receiver
And I'll make you a believer
But you're not a receiver
Yeah I'll make you a believer
Because you're not a receiver
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