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Diverse Artiesten | This Is Norway

16 mostly excellent songs by Norwegian indie bands.
CD, Rec 90

Tekst: Eelco van Kappen

Publicatiedatum: 06 oktober 2002

It's common knowledge that Norway is a friendly and inoffensive little country in Scandinavia, with a lot of snow, forests, fjords and such. But now there is also definitive proof that Norwegians are also rather cool. And it comes by way of This Is Norway,­ a collection of 16 mostly excellent songs by Norwegian indie bands. I can't recall ever having heard the Norwegian national anthem, but on the evidence of this record, I'm starting to suspect it's probably something really cool like Beercan by Beck.

This Is Norway opens with Last Thing by Ephemera, a really wonderful slice of Cardigans pop that sounds like the Norwegian landscape captured in acoustic guitars, fragile female vocals, and distant organs. Lovely stuff. Another big highlight is Listen Lennon by Whopper, a gorgeous Live-Forever-style Oasis hymn, with earnest lyrics in which the lads sing reassuringly to Paul McCartney, "Just remember / You were as beautiful as him." Also worth mentioning is the lazy slacker track Mike And Ike, by Uncle's Institution, for the fact that it offers the best use of sleighbells in a song since the Beach Boys.

If there is any criticism to be made of This Is Norway, it is that most of the bands on display here sound rather familiar. Lorraine sounds like Placebo, William Hut sounds like Tobin Sprout, Askil Holm sounds like Teenage Fanclub, Emerhoff & The Melancholy Babies sound like Pulp, Ephemera sound like the Cardigans, Corvine sound like Portishead, and so on. But it's only a minor criticism. With songs this good, it's the sort of familiarity that does not breed contempt.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/diverse-artiesten/this-is-norway/1931/
Meer Diverse Artiesten op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/diverse-artiesten