Following up from their excellent album under the name
Det Vackra Livet
in 2011, the Ekstroem brothers apply the improvements they made to their musical approach to the third
Mary Onettes
record, 2013's
Hit the Waves
. The first two
efforts were weighed down by overblown arrangements and somewhat derivative songwriting (and an overarching
Echo & the Bunnymen
fixation), but
was better because the arrangements were more organic and the songs had sharper hooks. Seems simple enough, but it was a big breakthrough for them. The songs on
are similarly catchy, scaled down to human size instead of arena size, and
Phillip Ekstroem
's anguished croon sounds better than ever delivering them. The band shared the production chores with fellow Swede
Daniel Lissvik
(formerly of
Studio
), and as with most of the jobs he has undertaken, his skillful layering and sculpting adds all kinds of dimension to the sound, and he and the band draw from a wider, more interesting sonic palette this time. His style is a perfect fit for the songs
wrote for the album. He can make things sound huge and dramatic (as on the title track and the elegiac "How It All Ends"), but he and the band shine when they pull things back and underplay the emotion, as on "Years" and "Can't Stop the Aching." These tracks have a feel very similar to the quieter, achingly desperate songs on
the Cure
's
Disintegration
. There are even a couple songs that tap into
Lissvik
's background as a cosmic disco producer ("Black Sunset" and "Don't Forget (To Forget About Me)"), a song that taps into a dreamy
Fleetwood Mac
vibe complete with
Buckingham
-style guitar lines ("Unblessed") and one that sounds shockingly like a spacy
Cure
-meets-
Harry Nilsson
piano ballad ("Blues.") The combination of strong songs,
's inspired production, and the chances they take (and nail every time) make this the best
record yet, and the first to sound like they have their own voice. ~ Tim Sendra