The Chrysler, Cold War Classic

reviewed by dave heaton

With the paper triangle-shaped masks they sport on the cover, Swedes the Chrysler resemble the Residents or some such pranksters. Listen to their second album Cold War Classic (from 2004, but released this year in the US), and you're likely to think first of another influence – the Clientele, or moody '60s orchestral pop in that vein. It's the singers' voices, the languid pace, the trapped-in-fog prettiness. Keep listening, though, cause that's only part of the story here.

I like the way the opening lyrics suggest the picturesque qualities are just a cover-up: "If you're impressed by the water / and the sunsets in this town / please hold on to your seats / cause now I'm dragging you down / to the villains", they sing, before getting to class struggle and deals with the devil. And later in the album: tyranny, power struggles, betrayal, violence, deadening traffic, kids born without futures. There's a constant feeling of being lost, passed by or left behind – a sense that the songs' characters are looking back with anger, or at least sadness. "Song on the radio / such a beautiful tune / oh life would be pretty if those words were true," a line goes in the gently bouncy pop single "Black Gold". And they do their best to make the tunes pretty, to give them the hope the lyrics lack. A bounty of instruments (organs, guitars, harmonicas, horns, strings) are used to play music that is sweet and pretty more often than dark and tortured, though it gets that way sometimes too. What's that one song titled? "Failures and Sparks". They sing of the former, but musically provide plenty of the latter.

{www.parasol.com}