Loney Dear

Though it was his fourth album, most of us were introduced to Emil Svanängen's pseudonymous recordings with Loney, Noir in 2007. Both that and this album are results of meticulous home recording. On Dear John, Emil broadens and deepens the scope of instrumentation in an effort to turn his smile inside out. "Airport Surroundings" opens the album with a bouncy step that echoes with a fragile twinkle of keys and strings. As the album progresses the echoes become denser and darker. "Harsh Words" uses a favoured Loney technique of starting life as a subdued paean whispered from mouth to ear before stirring itself up into a crowd-rallying love cry. "Under a Silent Sea" is a remix-ready mid-tempo churner that bathes in its grey-green ambience. "Summers" underlines the seesaw game of hopefulness and dusky sadness that runs through the whole album. Dear John plays like the wide-eyed world conqueror come back slightly weary with a stranger grown-up gaze and new tales to tell.