The Radio Dept.
Pet Grief

The debut of Radio Dept., "Lesser Matters," enchanted everyone a few years ago. In many respects, it was a surprise that appeared out of nowhere: in an international context dominated by the garage rock revival (Strokes et al.), from Sweden came this band with its proposal of shoegazing for the new millennium; as such, it was purified of the noisier tendencies but compensated with an injection of a sweet and melancholic pop vein. Since then, problems followed one after the other, members lost along the way, decent but not exhilarating tours, difficulties in developing an already trademark sound. Above all, the ruthless train of the music business that waits for no one. "Lesser Matters" managed, after 1 year, to earn a release in England with excellent reviews, but now a few years have passed, and they have already been forgotten, so "Pet Grief" is released, in total indifference, only in Sweden and is therefore found as an import.

Given the premises, we are faced with the classic case of the glass half full or half empty. Pet Grief is indeed a CD made with class and care, just that it is not the album of a group building on the results of Lesser Matters to go further towards consecration. It is not in terms of value (in the sense that it is inferior) nor in terms of sound (because it moves away from shoegazing). It's the album of a group that retreats into itself after a period of difficulty and tries to gather strength and demonstrate, succeeding, that they still have something to say. On a musical level, the shoegaze guitars are replaced by layers of keyboards that can only partly recall the 80s of Pet Shop Boys (as exaggeratedly reported by some reviews). It is true that the source of inspiration is probably that, but then Radio Dept. infuses that melancholy of their own, which allows them to completely appropriate even this new sound. Perhaps one of the major limitations of "Pet Grief" lies in the lack of great memorable tracks (there isn't a "Where Damage isn't Already Done," nor even a "1995"), the level is generally good, without major drops but certainly without peaks either. The result is an album that almost seems to lull the listener, immerse them in a mood, as if it were an ambient album without obviously sounding like an ambient album. Still, wanting to mention a few individual tracks among the best, we mention the title track and "Sleeping in."

Of course, "Pet Grief" will not succeed in gaining new fans for the young Swedes, but it is an album of consolidation while waiting to know whether Radio Dept. will make the leap upward or instead will head towards a slow oblivion.