Laid Back - Cosyland EP Review

Back in the eighties, Danish pop duo, Laid Back, were positively at the forefront of laid back pop with tracks like 'Sunshine Reggae' and 'Maybe I'm Crazy' going number one the world over. 'Sunshine Reggae' actually reached number one in a whopping 22 countries, shifting more than 20 million copies in the process. Despite this impressive run in the early half of that decade, the pair have practically disappeared from the musical map, drifting further into obscurity as the years progressed. To those who remember the pair, it may come as a shock to learn that they never disbanded and are still going strong today.

Cosyland is a mini-album; their 11th release over a 33-year career. In these 33 years, it doesn't seem as though the pair's musical tastes have changed a whole deal with the EP maintaining the same softly spoken, synth-infused, dreamy pop they first produced all those years ago. The EP encourages you to do exactly what it says on all those band t-shirts: 'get laid back.' However, it's fairly difficult to do that with all the surprises thrown at you throughout the album. It is fraught with jagged SFX and when John Guldberg enters a song, his vocals are more brooding than lulling. Let this serve as a warning for anyone wanting to buy an album full of ambience and a tinge of nostalgia - Cosyland shies from being ambient and, after three decades, they still sound positively nouveau.

Dream-pop heavyweights such as Beach House or even those of a more electronic persuasion like Chairlift would struggle to survive had it not been for Laid Back. The deep-breath vocals and the atmospheric, Bowie in Berlin-esque soundscapes are still as apparent here as it was in earlier releases. Wherever their old LPs lay in people's forgotten record collection, let Cosyland stand as a testament to a band who have undeservedly been cast into a musical abyss, yet keep on chugging along nonetheless.

7/10

Joe Wilde