Rockin' Our Turntable: The Legends

By Veronica Murtagh in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 21, 2009 8:40PM

Stockholm's The Legends create the kind of genre-defying music where you never know what to expect with the next release. For his fourth release under The Legends moniker, Johan Angergård again surprises fans and taps a wide range of collaborators. Over And Over is a testament to Angergård's taste and musical prowess, combining piercing instrumentation with bright indie pop melody.

Over And Over possesses a finely tuned and undeniable eclecticism from start to finish. Angergård is not afraid to pair together disparate influences and is talented enough to marry them with ease and sophistication. Heavily distorted guitar in the vein of The Jesus and Mary Chain runs the length of most of the album's 12 tracks. The beats are dark and the riffs razor sharp. At times the instrumentation verges on indiscernible noise, but always manages to dissipate one moment before reaching overbearing.

The darkness of the album's backdrop is unexpectedly complemented by Angergård's use of lighthearted, upbeat melodies. Bright synths and starry-eyed, dreamy vocal coos lend a mellow overlay that mingles playfully with the album's noisier elements. It's a formula that in writing seems like it shouldn't work, but a listen to any of Over And Over's tracks reveal a blissful marriage of light and dark, loud and soft.

From the morose, buried in distortion Recife to the sing along, girlish twee pop reminiscent, Monday To Saturday, Over And Over is an album full of surprises and a thoroughly enjoyable listen. The references from which Angergård culls The Legends influences are nothing new, but his unpredictable pairings ensure this is a release we'll come back to time and again.