Love Is All - Two Thousand And Ten Injuries Album Review

Love Is All, not a new Sandra Bullock/Hugh Grant Rom-Com but a Swedish Indie band. Two Thousand And Ten Injuries, not a new chapter in Dustin Hoffman's diary of abuse ("Squeezed and pulled and hurt my neck in 1988!") but a new album from the Gothenburg quintet, their first on Polyvinyl Records. Having received some acclaim for their previous two albums, 'Nine Times That Same Song' and 'A Hundred Things That Keep Me Up At Night' Love Is All were without a contract in place when they put this collection of songs together. Bassist Johan Lindwall says "We didn't have a record contract, and we didn't even look for one. Therefore the record developed completely on our premises and conditions and only because it was fun." Thankfully for you and I they were signed and we are able to enjoy the fruits of their labours.

Two Thousand And Ten Injuries is a riotous jamboree of New Wave, Punk and Indie. Josephine Olausson has a fantastically sharp and biting delivery with more than a passing resemblance to Mary Kate Geraghty from Fight Like Apes. The guitar work from Nicholaus Sparding will have your ears fizzing with retro riffs and the tight pulsating drumming from Markus Gorsch can't fail but to ignite the passions of even the most passive listener.

'Bigger Bolder' starts the album with a Strokes, 'Last Night', style guitar lick which is quickly given a joyous hillbilly makeover to get your toes tapping from the off. 'Never Now' sees the band in perfect Alt Pop form with a jangly, cascading, waterfall guitar tune giving rise to some girly inflections in the vocal harking back to time when Clare Grogan could turn John Peels ear. 'Less Than Thrilled' tells of a relationship break up through a more anxious and agitated vocal. "I try so hard to act nicer but I can't stand you being beside her." Delivered with conviction, you know she means it.

The second half of the TT&TI is just as compelling. 'The Birds Were Singing With All Their Might' is the first of two songs to evoke memories of Pig Bag. A New Order bass line meets 'See Those Eyes' and the result is a marvellously catchy rhythmic blast. 'Again, Again' takes us down a more doom doused pop furrow not ploughed as well as this since Fun Boy Three were troubling the charts. 'Kungen' is the bands retelling of a true story about when they saw the King of Sweden in the street in Gothenburg! 'A Side In A Bed', with its over layered vocal treatment and sax breaks, subtly uses a more ska/reggae infused back beat. Concluding the new album is 'Take Your Time' a slower, reflective and more sensitive offering that uses a cinema organ sound as an anchor around which to wrap the delicious song.

Love Is All are currently on tour in America, showcasing their new album. No doubt to the joy of their Illinois based label who had the foresight to get the record released. Recorded on a 24 track analog tape machine in their home built recording studio as a bit of fun, Two Thousand And Ten Injuries manages to wrestle a juvenile wanton abandon from your psyche. It's a gas.........................inhale and succumb.

Andrew Lockwood.