Worst things first: Mumford & Sons. I was introduced to them by two Maltese blokes while traveling this summer, and after I saw they were shortlisted for the Mercury with their debut album Sigh No More, I decided I had to get a hold of it. I don't know in which way it sounded different this summer, but I am slightly disappointed. If you asked ten people to place this band geographically in either London or somewhere in the American Midwest, nine of them would opt for the latter. Thanks to globalization and the ever-karrazzeeer mingling and criss-crossing of genres and influences, that's however not true. Now, I listen to much more music from London or Brooklyn, than from Seattle, but I don't think this is for me. It's purely a question of taste and preferences I guess, and I cannot completely rule out that Sigh No More will one day grow on me (can you ever, really?), but this is just too country for me. There's too much mandolin, too much banjo, and it seems to be applied very uncautiously.
Then there's young Danish indie-psych-poppers Treefight For Sunlight's debut, A Collection of Vibrations for Your Skull. I'm not quite decided on this one yet. That's a lie, actually. It's a bloody impressive album. I don't know, it's perhaps just all the hype surrounding the album - the 5- and 6/6 reviews and all that has led me to expect a masterpiece, and then it becomes sort of an anticlimax when the album, so far, turns out to be "just" very impressive. It kicks off spotlessly, with the two first joyful and pleasant tracks give way to 'The Universe Is A Woman', which is one of the albums definite musical highlights.
It almost becomes too rollickingly psychedelic and nauseatingly joyful at a few points, but only just about. The band cleverly keeps the sometimes slight over-the-top-ness in short leach, and turns it down a knot on pleasant tunes like 'They Never Did Know' and 'Time Stretcher', both of which are refreshingly finger-in-the-soil, and leave sufficient room for a beautiful escapade like 'Riddles In Rhymes'.
Then there's 'Facing The Sun'. It's often pretty hard to release a debut album on top of a highly successful hit single, but Treefight For Sunlight manage to overcome 'Facing The Sun's summer dominance - it fits pretty snugly into the whole ordeal, and while it by far isn't the most musically advanced track on the album, it's still an absolute favorite. I like it the same way I like Phoenix, for example, and even though it does seem slightly out of the place when the calendar reads October, it is a wonderful tune.
A Collection of Vibrations... is a pretty short and neat album, clocking in at only about 34 minutes. That's a good thing - sometimes young bands, especially very ambitious ones, tend to try and stuff much too much into their albums. To stay a bit within the genre, think of MGMT's Oracular Spectacular, on which, in my opinion, there's a pretty big drop-off between the 3-4 best tracks, and the less spectacular ones. Of course, there are tracks on A Collection of Vibrations... that are less interesting than others, but there isn't much of a gap. Another way Treefight For Sunlight manage to balance cleverly on the curious knife edge of debut records, is not selling out. Remember what happened to Oh No Ono between the Now You Know Oh No Ono-EP and their debut album? That's right - they became boring. Luckily, Treefight For Sunlight retain their confident sparkle.
So, what's the skinny on this? Well, it's a very good album. It's a very good debut album, which seems to have been what has propelled reviewers upwards, but it's a good album in it's own right, debut or not. It still very much remains to be seen how its longevity's like (I have my doubts...), but for sure Treefight For Sunlight have set a good benchmark for climbing even higher.
I'm waiting for Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest to drop in my mailbox. 9.2 on Pitchfork - that'll be rad!
