Acid House Kings
Sing Along With Acid House Kings
Twentyseven
It’s a very fortuitous thing that the Acid House Kings’ new album is the last Swedish band on my review docket, because I’ve seriously run out interesting adjectives to describe how perfectly that country’s pop musicians can mix whimsy and melancholy. Sing Along With is made up of twelve tracks, all worthy of being singles, that adhere closely to the Belle & Sebastian school of orchestral thought. Many of the songs have multiple layers of crystalline melodies. Singers Niklas Andergard and Julia Lannerheim trade singing duties throughout and act as the perfect foil in their lyrics about relationship disintegration.
While the quality alone makes the disc worthwhile, what is truly remarkable about the release the inclusion of a bonus DVD with karaoke versions of all the album’s songs. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time any indie band has made such a move. For karaoke obsessives like myself, this move has been a long time coming. Having to content myself with new wave and ’60s pop while thousands of karaoke-worthy bands go under-represented because of their lack of popularity has been extremely aggravating. Hopefully, the Acid House Kings will have set a precedent and like-minded indie groups will follow suit in the universal language of the dive bar.
Twentyseven: http://www.twentysevenrecords.com
