It drives me crazy when I read a review and the writer does little else than to compare the band to other musicians out there. That being said, let’s just say Joan Baez walks into a bar and strikes up a conversation with Burt Bacharach. One thing leads to another, and they end up creating a lovechild. This little creature grows up and becomes involved in a scandalous affair with the dudes from Ween, thereby spawning an illegitimate baby. He or she eventually settles down with the offspring of Erasure and Tom Petty and the two of them work for years to train their talented host of pet animals to sing and play instruments. Were this to happen, the results would pretty much sound exactly like Sweden’s The Radio Dept.
Heh heh. Anyway, The Radio Dept has just released their third album, entitled, “Clinging to a Scheme.” If you can get past their generic name (and I’m pretty sure you can), “Clinging to a Scheme” is an immensely pleasurable listen. It tends to ride the line in that grey area between rock and pop, but thankfully never slips too far down the slope into sappiness.
The songs here mostly stray from the verse-chorus, verse-chorus formula, though they manage not to digress into a formless mess. In other words, these are tunes that go someplace, but don’t meander all over freaking town to get there.
One of the most excruciating parts of American Idol is when Kara DioGuardi goes on and on in describing someone’s voice as “an instrument.” I feel as though someone’s taken a cheese grater to my soul every time I hear her drivel. However, it must be said that some of rock music’s most gifted vocalists share in the ability to present their voice as just another instrument in the band rather than to always have it take center stage (see Thom York, Courtney Taylor-Yaylor). The Radio Dept.’s Johan Duncanson seems to know when to pull back and let the music do the talking, and the results are captivating.
Look, this isn’t a record that’s going to change the world or make your head spin off of its axis. But at the end of the day, if music can be measured by the emotional response that it brings forth, then The Radio Dept. scores pretty damn high on the happiness scale. So much of the music I listen to anymore is so moody and pensive, so when an album comes along that manages to be light and blissful without making me retch, I just gotta jump on it.
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