Lakeshore Records
2004
Up Against The Legends
About This Album
The Legends are fronted by Acid House Kings/Club 8 main man Johan Angergard and their sound has a clear forerunner in the Club 8 track "Saturday Night Engine," a storming (very) Northern soul-inspired track bursting with an excitement that sounded quite out of place in that quiet group's discography. Johan must have realized this somewhere along the line, so he put together a new group as an outlet for his new songs. Drawing inspiration from some of the highlights of pop music through the ages (the pounding dancefloor beats of Motown, the thundering Spector Wall of Sound, the sweet harmonies of the girl group sound, the wire-sharp melodies of C-86 bands, the churning guitars of indie rock), the Legends sprinkle the record with tambourines, handclaps, and guitar fuzz and end up sounding like the best '80s noise pop band you never heard. In fact if you threw Up Against the Legends on in between an early Primitives or Jesus and Mary Chain record, you'd be hard-pressed to guess that it was released nearly 20 years later than the others. Not only does the record have an exciting sound, but the songs are strong too, full of hooky melodies, catchy choruses, and memorable phrases.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,5,9 and 11)

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