I’ve said a lot that what I like in music is joy (this is why one of my favourite songs ever is Delilah by Freddie Mercury). Because of my constant searching for things that bring joy – not you Ms. Kondo, you think every person should only have a library of thirty books and that’s clearly about 400 too few – it’s odd that I’ve never really been a fan of electropop, and it’s even more surprising given my self-confessed love of classic eurodance. So today I jumped into an album by Swedish duo lo-fi-fnk not knowing what to expect.
It’s opens with a slow, 38 second intro. Albums have started worse, have started better. I’ve never gotten the point of the odd intro to albums – surely you’d want a solid, bold start, not an extra track that does nothing but act as filler? Oh well.
The album starts proper with City, as song that sounds so much like scissor sisters that I kept expecting to hear an man explain why he doesn’t feel like dancing at many moment. This does pass the second the main synths come in and the tune really develops, and it’s a light, silly, booping and a beeping tune. It’s very definition of a summer song – a bit silly, very airy and it sort of hops from bar to bar. The sound that they’ve given the keyboard is akin to a ball bouncing down a set of stairs. The simple, constant kickdrum snare rhythm is used everywhere but gets you’re head nodding and feet tapping so I can’t begrudge them it’s use. It also gets bonus points for using the sounds of an old cassette player door opening to end the track, because it made me think of when I was a kid. This song is sweet. I like it.
Adore, the second track is more of the same. The singing by now is obviously the weakest part of this duos production, and they wisely skirt the issue by speaksinging most of the verses leaving the choruses to be carries by the music. There is nothing wrong with the song, it’s just more of the same. More sweetness.
The third track, Wake up, is more sweetness. And at this point I am starting to feel sick. I like this sort of music in moderation, just as I like Mars bars but after a few in a row I start feeling sick and being envious of the thin.
There is deviation in the album, the track System is a slower tune with a darker feel and female vocals, but the sound they’ve made the snare on their drum machine is so ugly that it just overpowers the whole track which is shame, as apart from that I like it. The synth is delicate and fast, the singer and lyrics work really well – slightly pained and frustrated about the system being fucked. It works as a song and as more layers come in the production really comes together, but that snare is just irksome.
The title track, Boylife, is definitely going on my feelgood playlist. It sounds like the music coming out of an inclusive bar at 2am on a Sunday morning and I love it. It’s powered by a cheesy disco beat and the lyrics are totally unimportant, to the point where it’s just the phrase boylife on repeat, and it rolls perfectly into the next track – The end – which is the aural version of that feeling when you’re still kinda drunk leaving a club as the dawn is breaking and you feel that you’re on the verge of a monumental positivie life change.
Y’know what – I like this album and if this is what electropop is like then I’ve discovered a new genre I enjoy. At times the album is a bit too light and happy, you need the dark and shade to make the light moments feel lighter, but it’s a good listen. I’m fairly lax with my music taste and it’s becoming even more hard to describe to people and it’s because of things like this. I can’t quite describe why I like some of these tracks as much as I do or why I’m adding it into a playlist with Sabaton and Alestorm, but I will and you can’t stop me.
Tomorrow, we’re going back to the alt-rock scene with something a bit noisy…
adamunwin.com 