Swedish House Light Entertainment Troupe
[Video][Website]
[4.33]
Scott Mildenhall: If it wasn’t already happening (well yes, it was), it is now: “EDM” (Pt. II) Broken Down. “Stripping back” electronic music isn’t anything new – look at The Flying Pickets – and sometimes it works, as with The Flying Pickets, but sometimes, as in this case, it just creates a mystery as to why on Earth anyone saw fit to do it. To prove to silly (straw)people that “ooh, behind all the bang bang thump thump there actually is Real Music with Meaning”? Is it all just noise granddad? As with so much, it is, in many ways, all Jo Whiley’s doing. The original “Leave The World Behind” served its purpose just fine; this is boring. All that said, if it leads to an acoustic version of “Bangarang” soundtracking this Christmas’ John Lewis ad, then it will have been worthwhile.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Excellent, someone else liked Gravity the Seducer. But when I want to listen to Ladytron I listen to Ladytron, not Swedish House Mafia associates.
[5]
Iain Mew: Who knew Swedish House Mafia had it in them? Cialis, CL, Ciara: this time none of them have a plan for you. There will be no ecstatic synth build-ups. The only thing to do is escape it all, out on the stark beauty of the ice. It all becomes even more impressive when you hear the original and realise that it was generic club uplift.
[7]
Alfred Soto: We’ve got enough trouble from people who think our terrestrial forms are prisons, and here comes this Swedish House Mafia track with New Age orchestration and scratchy-voiced singer mewling lullabies to remind us why life on earth sucks with these kinds of sentiments.
[3]
Patrick St. Michel: For once, I actually really like the music being made by Swedish House Mafia (who, secret secret, made the song). It’s subdued, and surprisingly stirring for being so bare bones. Unfortunately, they gifted this twinkling little gift to Lune, who sounds like a far less commanding Bjork and whose lyrics here might actually have worked over a bleating EDM banger…but grow obnoxious when forced to actually dwell on them.
[2]
Brad Shoup: I’m sorry… was there a lack of pompous software loaders on the festival circuit? Are we in such a mourning period that someone saw significance in recasting an early hit as a lilting, glacier-bound Volvo-shifter? A precious mess of two-finger piano, rusty screen doors, and peaty cello, “Leave the World Behind” talks like exile but sounds like sabbatical.
[4]
Anthony Easton: Is it wrong that I laughed when a song that was so lethargic asked me to “surrender myself to the rhythm”? Even Bjork, when asking me to do that, pushed past her eccentric gentility. I kind of love the paradox, though.
[7]
Will Adams: Those fissured beats and big strings are beautiful – like a baby Homogenic. Lune wishes she sounded like a baby Björk, and treating house lyrics like they’re ancient scripture does her no favors.
[5]
Daisy Le Merrer: “Hi Sven, here’s the latest version of our remix for the Volvo ad. As per your last email, we tinkered with the strings so they sound more “engaging” and we added more je ne sais quoi to the bass using pro-tools. As you know, our budget did not allow for a rerecording of the vocals, but we used our patented B.S. encoding algorithm and I’m sure you’ll find they’re really more in line with the Volvo experience. If you need any more work on this, remember the whole Swedish House Mafia team is always just one call away !”
[2]