Stop The Tape! Stop The Tape! in Bloomington, MN

As the American label
Friendly Fire
reissues the previous Europe-only output of Swedish indie-popsters
David & the Citizens
, the band signed with the
Bad Taste
label to release their third full-length album,
Stop the Tape Stop the Tape
The effect for American audiences is somewhat confusing, as several years' worth of albums are unloaded on the market at once, but
documents a subtle but important shift in
' sound. Where earlier albums like
Until the Sadness Is Gone
used the sprightly Swedish
indie pop
sound of the '90s as their musical starting point, there's a dark, moody edge to
, both in the uniformly pessimistic lyrics and the slightly harder arrangements. Songs like the
PJ Harvey
-like
blues-rock
of
"To Keep You Safe from Harm and Trouble"
feature a far more assertive rhythm section than before, and while
"Are You in My Blood?"
has the same tightly wound forward momentum as many of
' earlier songs, the heavily distorted fuzz guitars are a new twist. The combination of the new
rock
-ist vibe with
David Fridlund
's pure
pop
melodic sense is an uneasy one at times, but
is the first
' album that doesn't immediately recall a number of other, better bands, and that's a big step in the right direction. ~ Stewart Mason