Disco de Love Is All: “Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night”

It's been three years since Swedish indie-pop flag bearers Love Is All hit the scene with their critically-acclaimed debut Nine Times That Same Song, and while the absence saw the band mature in more ways than one, including marriages, children, and less-than-friendly partings, their sound is still as hyperactively infectious as ever. A frenetic collection of eleven songs that clocks in at under 35 minutes, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night more than lives up to its title with enough sugary pop to match a case of Red Bull.

That is, if you can deal with lead vocalist Josephine Olausson's unique Bjork-on-speed style. Fairly crackling with energy, Olausson powers along on a high-pitched vibrato that squeals just as much as it harmonizes. While at times disconcerting, as on opener "New Beginnings," Olausson for the most part is able to keep her more screechy impulses in check, and male vocal counterpart Nicholaus Sparding does an effective job complementing her with a more restrained, indie loverboy approach.

Musically, A Hundred Things is exactly what you would expect from Love Is All. Hi-hats piston up-and-down, snare drums beat with rapid-fire, military precision, guitars bounce along like a pogo stick from some sort of Elvis Costello hell, and the melodies are as sweet as ever. The band's lyrics are appropriately cheeky at times (the irrepressibly hopeful "Movie Romance") and at others more serious (but only slightly more), as on the breakup anthem "Give It Back." Some melodies are drenched in waves of guitar-fuzz feedback, while others ride swirling synths to pop-overdose levels, but all of them succeed in creating an atmosphere of undeniable fun.

Love Is All maintain the same animated, vivacious tempo on most of their songs, save for a couple oddballs like the endearing harmonica-ballad "A More Uncertain Future," which features some of the best vocal interplay between Olausson and Sparding on the entire album. And while this one-track mind might turn away some listeners looking for more variety, it only helps to drive home the message of this admittedly one-dimensional, if admirably direct, album: dance until you can't dance anymore, and if you're not having fun, you might need to get your head checked.

Sweden is the new Canada (which just a few years ago became the new U.K.), churning out dozens of upstart indie-rock groups that have music bloggers buzzing. Case in point: Love is All, a five-piece band hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, released their debut album Nine Times that Same Song stateside two years ago to much critical acclaim. The work consisted of pop that had just enough raucousness to please the punks and enough rhythmic, driven guitar-rock to please clubgoers.

The band's sophomore album, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night, doesn't stray far from this mold, with 11 new tracks that blow by in a mere 32 minutes. Inbuing relentless energy, lead singer Josephine Olausson's frenetic vocal stylings impressively keep up with the momentum of the album's frantic pace.

The lead track is titled "New Beginnings," but just the opposite may be true: Love is All is picking up exactly where they left off. Thankfully, their formula is fresh enough to avoid banality, musically speaking. The end result is jubilant music that sounds effortless and fun.

Though A Hundred Things lacks a single with the infectious charm of "Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up," it gains ground with superb production, replete with the intimate sounds of warm, popping vinyl. "When Giants Fall" manages to sound epic and immediate at once, reminiscent of both the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Lyrically, the band continues to match upbeat instrumentation with dour lyrics. "A More Uncertain Future" plays as a fight between two fraught lovers, as Olausson laments, "I've had enough of fantasy/We don't need each other anymore." The rest of the album deals similarly with themes of angst and impatience.

Fortunately, the adult songwriting does little to dampen the album's spirit. Yes, several Love is All members have gotten married and had kids since Nine Times, but A Hundred Things reveals they haven't grown up too much, and that their attention spans are still delightfully short.

Rating: 82/100

Didn't feel like it was going anywhere, too noisy and messy for my liking. Her voice doesn't appeal to me and she doesn't really sing. (in my opinion) The guitar sounds too much like any other song but this is not worth while for being recommended by Under the Radar magazine.