Labrador Sweden
2006
Pet Grief
About This Album
In the chorus of Pet Grief's lead single and catchiest song, Radio Dept. head Johan Duncanson makes the touching if rather petty confession that the only reason he's able to withstand his jealous despair is the knowledge that his would-be romantic rival has "the worst taste in music." Well, if it makes him feel better, there's certainly no doubting his and his bandmates' taste -- like their buzzy, buzzed-about debut, Pet Grief evinces an impeccably fashionable roll call of influences from British post-punk and shoegaze to more recent electronic indie and dream pop, and if that's not enough, the hook of "What Will Give?" offers the gratuitously hip reference: "I want to hide, like Jandek before playing live." But taste only gets you so far -- if you're going to wear your influences on your sleeve, you'd better have your heart on it too, if not some other tricks up it as well. Lesser Matters had the heart, the humanity, the class, the confidence, and the pop chops, in spades, to pull off its stylish simulations without ever seeming rotely regurgitative, but this sophomore set, to some extent, lets its stylishness supersede its substance.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,6,7 and 11)

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