Track Listing

1. Say Something New
2. You Can�t Hurry Love
3. Chico
4. New Friend
5. Diana Ross
6. Warm Night
7. Foreign Country
8. Seems Fine
9. Lovin Kind
10. Lonely As Can Be
11. This One�s For You
12. Concretes For Computers: Warm Night Video Starring The Leopard And His Girlfriend, A Short Film Starring The Concretes, Snap Shots and More.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37440 in Music
• Released on: 2004-06-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Concretes' superb eponymous debut is the product of a long and complicated history. The Stockholm-based group started life as an all-girl trio, but has since expanded to a larger concern with eight core members and a floating crew of backing singers, harpists, violinists and cellists. Corralling such a large cast into anything like a coherent vision is no easy task, but it's one that the Concretes manage with some aplomb on a consistently spectacular album. The sound conjured by the Concretes' orchestra, unlikely though it might seem, owes most to Mazzy Star and the Velvet Underground. There's also an affinity for Motown, demonstrated by the titles "Diana Ross" and "You Can't Hurry Love" (not a cover version) and by a knack for wedding simple pop tunefulness to complex musical arrangements. Mostly, however, the mood is one of studied, luxuriant gloom. All the Concretes' songs even the more upbeat ones, are conveyed with a similar tone of lachrymose sincerity, and the languid, slurring drawl of Concretes vocalist Victoria Bergsman is evocative of both Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and the Velvets' ice-maiden collaborator Nico. --Andrew Mueller

CD Description
Debut album from Swedish indie-pop octet who cross the shimmering, close-harmony soul of 60s Motown girl groups with the lo-fi, shambolic style of classic 80s and 90s indie bands like the Pastels, Mazzy Star and the Jesus & Mary Chain. Produced by the band and Jari Haapalainen (International Noise Conspiracy), the album includes the single 'You Can't Hurry Love' (which is not a cover of the Supremes classic).

Customer Reviews

warm swedish lovin'
A beautiful collection of slightly off-kilter gems. The whole album has a childlike pop-iness that is endearing and full of hooky pleasures. Highlights for me were the chilled swirl of "Chico", the drunken bounce of "Warm Night" and "Foriegn Country", and the booty-shaking "You Can't Hurry Love".

well, i like it
Actually no, I don't like it, I love it. It is pop as it should be. Sweet and shiny, short and super hot. All these songs make me swoon and smile like a gibbon. and I reckon a gibbon swoons and smiles pretty good. It is a case of substance and style not either/or. If you like the Shins, Beach Boys and have a certain prediliction for beautiful female voices ala nico, then you're gonna love this one. Pop album of this year, many years past and many years to come.

Solid debut
Imagine the VU's 'banana album' produced by Berry Gordy. An excellent debut that wears it's influences on it's sleeve whilst puffing away on Carribean woodbines. Motown and 60's pop influences are scattered throughout and a lead singer who makes Nico sounds positivly manic, strong sparse indie sounds interspersed with a great brass sound.
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something good.