JJ

JJ are a band that despite having one album out already have only seem to come to more widespread attention upon the arrival of their 2nd album, confusingly enough named "no.3"


JJ are essentially a dreamy sounding indie duo from Sweden who make hazy sounding music fusing together the airy vocals of female vocalist Elin Kastlander with an array of smooth synths, acoustic guitars and a large amound lot of echos.


No.3 is indeed an advancement on No.2 and it is clear why they are getting so much media coverage at the moment because they are actually bloody amazing! "Let go", the first single from the album is indeed one of the highlights, a song with a chorus filled with warming synths and an intensly catchy melody is deffinatly worth a listen.


If last year was the year of the darker more moody XX, than JJ could well be 2010's much lighter answer to that.

So without further ado, here's the download link!

Dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeams!

Dream-pop, for me, is hit-or-miss. It seems that I get either an hour of ominous static crap or provocative sounds that turn the room around me into outer-space. Dreamend's Maybe We're Making God Sad and Lonely falls into the latter category.

You are greeted by a humble-yet-awesome opening track of spacey guitars and chimes syncing perfectly, and swooped into the second track: An old lady (quite obviously from the South) reciting the events of an old ghost story with almost triumphant-sounding music being dreamily played in the background. This goes on for five minutes, but it intrigues me (you might not feel the same way.) It's not until the third track do we hear real vocals, and they're very refreshing. Imagine Thom Yorke's voice, but deeper. The next track is basically "I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaake up, yesterrrrrrrrrrrrrrdaaaaay" over and over again with, yup, more dreamy guitars. Mary Cogswell and Fred Vaillancourt is a girl's nervous breakdown set to music. Think about that. The last track (New Zealand) pales in comparison to the former five, but it can still stand up by itself. I'm awful at writing conclusions. This is awkward. Go away.

I don't normally like shoegaze, but...

LSD and the Search For God - LSD and the Search For God
Link

Really good shoegazy-dream pop, not really sure how to explain this but it's god-tier stuff so just give it a try. Best tracks: Starting Over, This Time