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┌────────┐
────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | Azure Blue
Title | Beyond The Dreams There's Infinite Doubt
Genre | Indie Format | Album
Source | Vinyl Time | 38:39
Label | Fika/Hybris Store | 2013
Catalog | FIKA032 Rip | 2015
Bitrate | 250 kbps Size | 72.94 MB
Freq | 48.0 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
A1. Time Is On Our Side 4:44
A2. The Road I Know 6:04
A3. Willows And Pines 3:55
A4. Sunrise 1:20
A5. When The Love Is Pure And True 5:46
B1. Sunset 3:53
B2. Do Not Go Gentle 2:05
B3. The Bitter End 3:41
B4. By Your Side 4:01
B5. Beyond The Dreams 3:10
┌────────┐
────┤ Notes ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Having already staked a claim in the mid-2000s as one of Sweden's most
prolific and talented indie pop musicians from his time in the folk-pop
group Laurel Music and fronting the happy-go-lucky collective Irene, Tobias
Isaksson returned in 2011 with the solo project Azure Blue. Combining the
smooth synth pop of the '80s with the sophistication of Bryan Ferry's solo
work and the lyrical eye for detail of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan
(of the Go-Betweens), Azure Blue's debut album, "Rule Of Thirds", was
released in late 2001 on the Hybris label in Sweden and Matinee in the U.S.
The record caught on with reviewers and fans alike, leading to a Swedish
Independent Grammy Award for Best Album. He returned two years later with
the even more refined "Beyond The Dreams There's Infinite Doubt", with the
same two labels, plus Fika in the U.K., footing the bill.
The album was a critical success and was nominated for a 2013 Gaffa Award
for Best Swedish Album, while Isaksson was also nominated for Best Swedish
Solo Artist. His next move was to do some remixes, while also starting
another project, Nite Flights. Delving into some serious space disco, he
released two EPs ('Nite Flights' and 'Solar') in 2014. Late that year he
opened a recording studio, a disco duo with Peter Bjorn and John's Peter
Moren called Personal Trainers, and got back to making Azure Blue records.
The first was the "Every Ending Story" EP, which surfaced in May of 2015,
then the third Azure Blue album followed. Released by Hybris and Fika,
"Beneath The Hill I Smell The Sea" served as the final entry in a planned
trilogy and featured seven guest vocalists, including Amanda Mair, the
Caesars' Cesar Vidal, and Per Magnusson of Sportsman.
To put it short, 2013's "Beyond The Dreams There's Infinite Doubt"
is a synthy, poppy delight that needs no excuses. Tobias Isaksson, who was
in the bands Laurel Music and Irene, clearly has a handle on how to
construct simple, very hooky songs, then coat them in the finest post-New
Order synthesizers for maximum impact. The album has the feel of a lost gem
from a really good second-tier band from the mid-80s that never got a break
but was just as good as the bands that did make it. Sort of the same
phenomenon his previous bands suffered from, since they never really hit
either. Probably the same fate this band and record will suffer, which is
too bad because "Beyond The Dreams" is just as good as any synth pop going
in 2013.
It might be a little too sunny to be taken seriously by the gloom-and-doom
set, and songs like the sweetly romantic "Sunset" and the fluffy "Time Is
On Our Side" are probably way too happy for the average synth pop fan.
Indie pop fans who aren't averse to an absence of guitars should give the
album a try though; the melodies and Isaksson's vocals are perfectly pop
and the overall light tone makes the album very easy to embrace.
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└────────┘