After an LP called Spring Came, Rain Fell... and an EP called
Summer Songs, the latest outing for beloved Swedish soft-pop
sweethearts Club 8 has (if they're thinking seasonally in sequential
fashion) probably got something to do with the moods of autumn.
Amidst such distant, diffused sunshine, and the fall of leaves, and
the rise of romance, and the gentle cool of nights, Club 8's pair of
lovers-in-love-yeah nestle deeply amongst the musical melancholy
they've tended to over recent seasons. The "Club" part of their
moniker now seems as knowingly ironic as the titling of Johan
Angergård's other gig, wussy acoustic crooners Acid House
Kings. Club 8's fifth album, and third in just over two years,
Strangely Beautiful makes this just-past eight-season span
seem like a distinct movement in the duo's "career." It leaves behind
the bright and shiny pop of their first two discs (Nouvelle
and The Friend I Once Had) and settles into a more moodily-lit
mode, which, eventually, has led them all the way down the garden
path to the cleared-out clearing this disc snuggles up in, with its
falling leaves and pining hearts depicted through muted tones,
painted with what we could call an autumnal palette. Sounding, on
opening, a little more '80s-toned, too, the gear soon nestles into
the softest of soft-pop — less twee than before, more
soft-hearted and opaque — with bashful beats and tissuey
synth-tone and glissando guitar floating about like dust swimming in
a stream of sunlight flooding through a high window, such sound
afloat on the caprice of the gentlest indoor breezes, almost
cultivating an air of "ambience," if you're still allowed to say that
word aloud. Keeping with such, Karolina Komestedt's vocals seem ever
breathier, each passing season — each passing song, even —
finding her wishing to whisper every single sentimental sentiment
like she's imparting some precious secret.
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