Icons of Elegance - Dancing Is Easy

Part of the reason that Scandinavian indie-pop seems to have such an easy journey across the North Sea to our cynical shores lies in the fact that they're so adept at making Anglo-American music with just the slightest twist of foreign flavour. The latest Norse invaders are Finnish brothers Anssi and Henri Växby, whose third album as Icons of Elegance is a gently simmered pot of melodic guitar pop, innocent songwriting and Americana style. Both are well-versed musicians (Anssi is a busy session player, Henri a composer), and while it's difficult to pick holes in Dancing Is Easy, the overriding complaint is that it's just too generic, too ready to assimilate. Norwegian Girl is 50s rock'n'roll pastiche, the title track is Strokes-lite, and Ready When You Are evokes suppressed memories of The Thrills. It's this kind of pleasant yet banal import that proves that sometimes being the sea-locked nation isn't so bad. [Nick Mitchell]