Rebel Group
2006
State Of The Ark
About This Album
State of the Ark, the Swedish band's third full-length and their first to receive U.S. distribution, is aptly named, as it both summarizes the strengths of their career to date and constitutes a new departure, an innovative technological development for their music and for guitar-based, pop-inclined rock in general. Perhaps the most conspicuous change from their earlier work is the virtual absence of extravagant symphonic and choral bombast, and a corresponding scaling-back of their overt, glam-infused theatricality. In the few instances when an orchestral element is introduced, as with the unison string section on the strutting schaffel opener, "This Piece of Poetry Is Meant to Do Harm," it's understated and playful, rather than melodramatically overblown. There's still plenty of flamboyance to go around -- the guitars gleam and crunch, lead singer Ola Salo swoons and soars in his glorious falsetto (more resplendent than ever, thanks to doubling and choral multi-tracking), and he still has plenty of anthemic rabble-rousing on his lyrical agenda -- check the pansexual rallying cry "The Others" or the free-agent hedonism of "Deliver Us from Free Will," a delirious, dadaist fusion of rock and disco that's not above indulging in some absurdly operatic backup vocals.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,6 and 8)

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