Love Is All

Nearly a year after surfacing online in a rush of blogger excitement, Love Is All’s utterly fantastic debut album gets a re-release (including a bonus four-track disc) thanks to a Sonic Unyon distribution deal. Signed to the small but growing What’s Your Rupture? label out of NYC, this Swedish act are the sum of many influences summarised in a frenzied ball of energy. Born from the ashes of sugary pop act Girlfriendo, the members’ new admiration is more for old art punk acts like the Raincoats and Kleenex, and lo-fi indie stalwarts Comet Gain. By filtering in their heroes, the five-piece build a solid foundation of tactful love songs and eager rave ups. Singer Josephine Olausson takes the reins with an adorable cadence, bouncing from warm coo to curt yelp at the drop of the tempo, as in the transition from the slow-burning album standout "Felt Tip” to the animated "Spinning and Scratching.” The newly appended b-sides on the second disc join the family beneficially, pushing a heady Hammond into the mix on "Lost Thrills,” and turning Yoko Ono’s "Kiss Kiss Kiss” into a Contortions-like explosion led by Fredrik Eriksson’s blistering sax. With everything bathed in reverb, there’s an immediate charm to their affordable production quality. It all sounds like it was done in one, maybe two takes, but I couldn’t imagine such a record benefiting from a high-priced gloss over. Lo-fi recordings rarely sound this electric, and this feels like a benchmark of sorts. This is a stupendous record, as you’ve already likely learned, one of the year’s best.