Komeda

Perhaps pop music has never been about how poetic or poignant its lyrics are, and maybe they have always served a subservient role to pretty much every other aspect of the genre. It’s an argument that Swedish three-piece Komeda certainly subscribe to, and whether it be intentional or not, vocalist Lena Karlsson’s lyrics are often so simple and to the point that they just seem lazy compared to the considered albeit sometimes over-baked production or varied arrangements, instead of just the usual pop melody filler. Their Stereolab-meets-Cardigans approach does yield a few promising should-be-singles, most notably "Nonsense” and "Victory Lane.” But KoKoMeMeDaDa, the group’s first album in six years, is ultimately just usual pop fare: consistently light with the lyrics, heavy on influences and, like their more commercial counterparts, still centred on housing a couple of singles instead of crafting a complete album. As such, it would’ve fashioned a much better EP than full-length, and though easy targets like the group’s lyrics may be part of the blame, many of these songs would still sound underwritten and uniform without them, failing where the album’s few winners manage to succeed.