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┌────────┐ ██▀▀
────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | Azure Blue
Title | Beyond The Dreams There's Infinite Doubt
Genre | Indie Format | Album
Source | Vinyl Time | 38:31
Label | Fika/Hybris Store | 2013
Catalog | FIKA032 Rip | 2017
Bitrate | 2730kbps Size | 791.00 MB
Freq | 96.0 kHz Encoder | FLAC 1.3.1
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
A1. Time Is On Our Side 4:42
A2. The Road I Know 6:02
A3. Willows And Pines 3:56
A4. Sunrise 1:17
A5. When The Love Is Pure And True 5:46
B1. Sunset 3:53
B2. Do Not Go Gentle 2:03
B3. The Bitter End 3:40
B4. By Your Side 4:03
B5. Beyond The Dreams 3:09
┌────────┐
────┤ 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 US.
First things first: no one should be covering Sade's "By Your Side" ever
again. Her version was perfect enough, then Beachwood Sparks'
reinterpretation made it indie perfect. The Swedish indie poppers Azure
Blue should have put the notion that a majestic synth pop take on the song
would sound good back in the box of bad ideas from which it came. Mores the
pity because the rest of their second album, 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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└────────┘