Product Description

Debut album, after six years together, from Swedish quartetinspired by the 80s shoegazing sound of My Bloody Valentine, the Cocteau Twins and the Jesus & Mary Chain. Already being hailed as a minor classic, it presents a reserved, melancholy take on the style, refusing to blatantly rock out, but instead creating an intimate, comforting mood. Includes the single 'Where Damage Isn't Already Done'.

Track Listing

1. Too Soon
2. Where Damage Isn't Already Done
3. Keen On Boys
4. Why Won't You Talk About It
5. It's Been Eight Years
6. Bus
7. Slottet #2
8. 1995
9. Against The Tide
10. Strange Things Will Happen
11. Your Father
12. Ewan
13. Lost & Found

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61814 in Music
• Released on: 2004-08-30
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Something different
This album takes a while to get into. That has to be bared in mind before you listen to it but it's a great experience once you understand what they are about.

There are alot of electric drum beats with dreamy guitars over the top and a very chilled out vocal. It somehow manages to sound quite lo-fi whilst sounding very well produced and "warm". Sometimes lo-fi can be associated with poor recording but this really isn't the case.

This isn't a CD to put on whilst you have things to do. It's a CD to sit back and enjoy and relax to. It probably isn't for everyone but for people who like groups like AIR (they are not that similar to AIR but the music brings out all the same feelings) this is one to try.
Where Damage isn't Already Done, Ewan and Why Won't You Talk About it are the most main stream sounding songs on the album. They aren't mainstream at all but compared to the rest of the album, these feel like the ones that you could possibly hear on the radio.
It's strange however because alot of these songs fade into the background which is usually a bad thing but it just works on this album. There is nothing else that you would want in the background as this is perfect. There are some very catchy moments that will stick in your head for days and some nice chilled out moments where you just go with it.

Great album!

I,m afraid Lesser Matters is what you get
The most fun to be had while listening to this album is spotting the number of other bands, usually superior ones, that it reminds you of. By track four I,d got My Bloody Valentine, which is easy as every other reviewers mentioned them, Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, Pale Saints The Wondermints to a certain degree, The Kingsbury Manx and one whose name escapes me so I won't pursue that one. Instrumental "Slottet #2" brought to mind the pristine atmospherics of This Mortal Coil who used to slot that kind of spooky ambience on to their L.P, s at will. I'll just have to take reviewer Music Fan's word as to whether it resembles The Ravonettes, Concretes or Wannadies in any shape or form.
So Lesser Matters is pretty derivative. Coating sugary pretty melodies with dissonant layers of Fuzzed up guitar could be considered derivative without risk of libel action as pretty much every band mentioned above has been there ,done that. Except it's nowhere near as dynamic or as thrillingly consumptive as M.B.V or The Jesus and Mary Chain. It fails to gloriously immerse you in a billowing cumulus of sound as Slowdive did, and the songs just aren't as strong as the best material of any of them.
To give them some credit they are musically more diverse than I may have intimated. "Strange things Will Happen" and "Your Father" have churchy keyboards and glistening piano while "Lost and Found" has a weird vibrato sound running through it. "Too Soon" drizzles sparse electronica over its spindly frame." It's been Eight years "is that song fleshed out a bit. "Bus" is more noodling sound over a pitter pattering drum track and seems much longer than its three minutes. John Duncanson,s vocal chords are suddenly stretched a bit on "1995" as if someone poked him with a sharp object but it's too little ,too late to save the song. "Against the tide" has an engaging vocal melody which is thankfully higher in the mix and one of the guitars ceases to imitate a giant hornet long enough to pick a few an interesting counterpoint chords. Best track "Where Damage isn't already done" has an irresistible chiming resonance while "Keen on Boys" cleverly melds a funky dub bass line just below the meshing scuzzy guitars. "Why Won't You Talk About It" repeats the formula in slow motion.
The main failing of this album is not that it copies or integrates old sounds and textures, as most bands do that any way. It's simply the material they choose to hang this on is not strong enough; the songs never gel, with the exception of "Where Damage Isn't Already Done" into a cohesive whole. Some have vibrant arrangements but weak vocals lacking melodic impact while some are just aural wallpaper. You know they're there but you just see no reason to pay any attention to them. I, m afraid that with Lesser Matters the title has become a self fulfilling prophecy about what is contained therein.

Odd exciting...
Lesser matters is the debut album of the swedish group Radio Dept. It has received great reviews in all kinds of media in Sweden and The Radio Dept is concidered to be one of the great indiegroups for many years from now!

Though, great reviews in Sweden at the moment doesn't guarrantee that everyone will like this! At the moment it is a bit "hip" to be odd in Sweden and the record is actually a bit different! Mind you that groups like Muse, Feeder and Idlewild aren't rated at all in Sweden nowadays.

Even though I am saying that this record is a bit odd, I must admit that it is really exciting and that I was curious all the time when I first heard it, to hear what was coming next!

If I should try to describe the sound, I would like to draw paralells to 'Belle and Sebastian' and 'The Reindeer section' but the sound is more electric and agressive. Sometimes the songs are amazingly beatyful, sometimes agressive and melancolic. I would also say that you can hear some similarity to 'Snowpatrol' and 'Clearlake' in Radio Dept as well.

Anyhow, this is an exciting and beautiful record and it's well worth the money!