Surrounded - In Comfort’s Tight Clothes

Surrounded
In Comfort's Tight Clothes

This isn’t the album cover for Surrounded’s upcoming release, but actually a Deep Elm Records release from 2003 called “Safety In Numbers”. Still, I wanted to post about them because I recently received a three song demo for the upcoming release and it was totally amazing.

Imagine the more structured “Vivadixie…”-era Sparklehorse songs and you’ve got a good idea of Surrounded’s shimmering, intimate rock songs. The first track off the sample disc was “In Comfort’s Tight Clothes” and it’s almost too close to Mark Linkous material for comfort. The Swedish band (oh yes, we do like bands from Sweden and yes, the country should be known for more than just winning the Olympic gold in hockey) creates a very dreamy soundscape to house Marten Rydell’s whispery vocals. Truly amazing song there.

Not only is the music very much in the Sparklehorse vein, but the imagery in the sprase yet evocative lyrics really reminds me of Linkous too, especially on “Bolder Acrobat.” Still, there is something very different about them and the music that I can’t quite put my finger on.

“Terra Firma Legion Farewells” is a beautifully hushed tune containing keyboards or strings reminiscient of Mercury Rev or Air, with an AM radio broadcrast in the background. The song later expands to include drums and chiming guitars before fading out quietly.

When I first heard these songs I sorta forgot about the 35 CDs in line in front of them for review and jumped them up to the top of the stack. So, you can imagine I’m going to be keeping an eye out for their full release which is happening ? For now, you can visit the site and listen to tracks off of their older album.

Members:

Marten Rydell - vocals, guitar
Marcus Knutsson - guitar
Erik Edwardsson - drums
Tom Malmros - bass

Albums available on Itunes:

Safety In Numbers (Deep Elm 2003)

Artist Website:

www.surrounded.se

by Palebear