Travel with the Sun – TwentySeventeen – 2017
When there’s an email from a band that recently released their debut album in the inbox things can basically go in two directions. The first way is that it’s something kinda awkward on the album. Perhaps something that’s way to modern and doesn’t suit an old man like me. Then there’s the other possibility. That the music featured on the album is really good and you wonder why you never heard it before. This is the true upside with blogging. When people send their material in for me to listen to or view and I’ blown away by it. Travel with the Sun sent their first album Twentyseventeen and it falls into the latter category. I wonder why I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to this at an earlier stage. It’s a really great album that I like a lot.
I guess Travel with the Sun is a bit too modern for an old dog like me but I don’t care. Twentyseventeen sounds fresh and the songs are very well written and performed. I don’t think there are any notes in there that are not carefully thought through. That’s the impression I get anyway. The production sounds very nice all through the entire album. Each song sounds fresh and still, the album is strong as a whole. I mean, many times you hear great songs on an album but the album in its entirety becomes a bit tedious. A bit boring and repetitive. This is not the case with Twentyseventeen. It sounds good all the time.
I am especially fond of the vocals. That is my soft spot when it comes to music. If the vocals are great the rest of the music may follow in the same footsteps but if the vocals are bad there’s usually not much that can be done to save the rest. Anton Björklund delivers great vocals through the album and it’s a real joy exploring what happens musically in the background. I think I’ve played this ten times or more by now and I still find new things in the music. A highly recommended debut album to be sure!