Four years in the making,
Astropol's debut album
The Spin We're In is a confident, resonant modern pop record made with precise craft and deeply felt emotions -- not surprising since it was made by people responsible for some of the most impressively put-together indie pop of the last decade (Björn Yttling of
Peter Bjorn and John) and some of the most dramatic (
Shout Out Louds' Bebban Stenborg). Throw in the enigmatic Smash and it's a small-scale Swedish pop supergroup. Unlike many a bloated effort that emerges when talents this individual get together,
Spin is an understated and direct album that focuses on love-lost songs, rendered in lower case with tiny tears dotting the page. Stenborg gracefully wrenches raw emotion out of the words with minimal effort, sending out icy waves of heartbreak every time she opens her mouth. The music is mostly sparse, except when it isn't. Yttling being a master of dynamics and arrangement, the songs' feelings are matched note for note by the music. Downbeat ballads like "There Used to Be Birds" are surrounded by subtle strings and gently strummed guitars, the more insistent tracks like "Make Love Stay" have rhythm sections that give some muscle to the sadness, and a song or two even burst out of the melancholy gloom and head toward a distant dancefloor (the peppy by comparison "The Sound of a Heart That Breaks"). Quite a few of the songs would be positive additions to the output of their main bands, especially the almost bouncy "True Love" and the beautifully morose "Just Before Our Love Got Lost." It's a very well-constructed album with a strong mood that never wavers or breaks; again not surprising that this crew could make an album this strong. They probably shouldn't quit their day jobs for
Astropol, but if they need to have something to fall back on, they could have done a lot worse. ~ Tim Sendra