With a sprawling ragbag democracy of communal spirits to rival The Polyphonic Spree, Sweden’s The Concretes arrive on our shores to assuage our agitated post-punk souls with their undulating waltzes and a plentiful cup of gentle bonhomie.
Formed in Stockholm in 1995 by central girlie Concretes, Lisa Milberg, Maria Eriksson and Victoria Bergsman the band cut their first EP in 1999 before following it up with a firmer collection of tracks for the ‘BoyYouBetterRunNow’ in 2000.
Grabbing three instruments at random – and assuming a name that alluded quite squarely to their inner-city Stockholm origins – The Concretes court the same kind of loosely shambolic, made-on-a-shoestring garage approach favoured over the decades by bands as diverse as The Ronnettes, The Velvet Underground and Mazzy Star. You know the kind of thing I mean: Hammond organs going berserk, big tatty drum sounds, bleeding lung horn-sections, wall-to-wall hand-clapping, trademark tambourines and all manner of clumsily arranged percussion. And like The Ronnettes, the Velvets and the Mazzies before them – the sound is at once vital and intoxicating; not least because of its attention to detail, the sound of an obsessive producer skulking manically over the mixing desk and fiddling with drum pedals and paper-combs.
We might marvel at that big love sound that sets apart the dizzy and infectious single ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ but there’s a lot going on besides. ‘Chico’s inspired range of bells and whistles and heartrending strings literally oozes originality, ‘New Friend’ limps and bleeds with the same languid beauty as anything released Mazzy Star, ‘Diana Ross’ is pure Nico and ‘Seems Fine’ sparkles with entirely appropriate Motown zest and empathy.
With cellos, violas, harps, violins, mandolins and pianos on the boil at any one time, it was never likely to be an uneventful affair, but The Concretes goes one step further by proving that slow and groovy is this year’s fast and loose. Not as intense as Hope Sandoval, not as sexy as The Ronnettes, but every bit as pretty as either.