The Radio Dept. – Clinging To A Scheme
[Labrador, 2010]
Their music can only go in headphones. Then you get it truly intimate, then you really listen. With The Radio Dept., you have to be alone with them. The third album of the Swedish band only confirms the rule. I look forward to each album and each track (like many other fans) with huge impatience. Every time it makes me worried a bit – what if they’re “spoiled” this time? And each release makes me happy, because with years (and they’ve been around since mid-90s) the heart of their music stays warm and shoegazy, never getting boring.
The preceding EP “David” confirmed that The Radio Dept. didn’t expire. And now the album itself makes me fall in love again with this music. It rhymes perfectly with the fog of the early morning, with the transparent blue sky in the sun. Clinging To A Scheme is really a scheme to follow. Crystal keyboards, broad guitar strokes, half-shaded vocals of Johan Duncanson – plush, soft and home-like. The album is great for both indoors and outdoors, it fits perfectly with vigorous step and with numb dreamlike state with a throw pillow.
Clinging To A Scheme has been awaited since 2008 – it was announced for release first in the spring or fall. It wasn’t easy to wait, but not too hard either – thanks to a line of singles (remember marvelous Freddy & The Trojan Horse?), and when you’re waiting for something amazing, it’s sweet to wait.
You recognize The Radio Dept. from the first seconds of Domestic Scene. Then Heaven’s On Fire – light, spring-like and agile. I really love Never Follow Suit – it’d make a good single (I hope there’s a video), it sets me “going your way” and at the same time walking on the grass. Everything about Clinging To A Scheme makes you feel good and clean. It’s not a loud festival, but an intimate, inner holiday. Just for you. Slow A Token Of Gratitude, Memory Loss, You Stopped Making Sense, with more uptempo (they can’t be called fast) and at the same time soft David (already with a place in my heart), The Video Dept., Never Follow Suit – all this together forms a kind of special glass through which to look at the world. And the world starts shining, not very brightly, but from the inside, with a shimmering light.
It seems I’ve written many words, all of them around the essence. I’ll probably never be able to explain what makes The Radio Dept. my favorite band of all times. They are not very significant in the huge, multi-faceted music scene. But I’m never bored with their music, and nothing else gets so deep inside me, staying unfussy and pure.
Read & Listen:
Official website
Myspace
Heaven’s On Fire mp3
