The debut album from Danish singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Søren Løkke Juul, the one-man band behind Indians, rolls in like fog from the North Sea with the elegiac yet carefully measured opening track "New." Like much of the dreamy
Somewhere Else, its spacious slow build belays its subtle, emotional pyrotechnics ("The war is just outside my door/and I’m going out to win"). Juul's chilly, atmospheric electro-folk fits right in with the current 4AD roster (
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti,
Bon Iver,
Grimes,
Iron & Wine), but it has a lot more in common with like-minded, eclectic, Copenhagen-bound contemporaries like
Choir of Young Believers,
Oh No Ono, and
Efterklang, all of whom share Indians' penchant for crafting alternately quirky and morose indie pop that's been filtered through the wide angle lens of new wave. For the most part, Juul sticks with the
Bon Iver/
Fleet Foxes model of expansive, confessional indie folk, albeit peppered with electronic flourishes, with highlights arriving via the propulsive "Cakelakers" and the
Arcade Fire-esque "I Am Haunted," but he occasionally veers off into shimmery,
Sigur Rós territory, especially on the lovely second cut "Bird." Elsewhere, songs like "Magic Kids" and "Reality Sublime" sound like house cuts with all of the beats removed (it's actually pretty effective), and the quietly cascading title track provides a nice bookend to its similarly structured opening volley, resulting in a solid, if a little subtle, debut that promises great things while delivering many very good ones. ~ James Christopher Monger