Sambassadeur - European

 

For all its sweeping strings and pop nous, Sambassadeur’s third album is an understated affair that initial listens might write off as underwhelming. At only nine tracks there’s little room for filler, yet the slight instrumental A Remote View is decidedly far from the peaks the Gothenburg quartet have it in them to scale. But the Cocteau Twins-like shiver of I Can Try, the sweet simplicity of High and Low, and the symphonic swell of Sandy Dunes will lure you back until, with startling clarity, the pieces fall into place. European only sounds like a compromise because it scribbles its delicately uplifting melodies on an immense Swede-pop canvas others have filled more vividly, but its subtlety gifts it a different kind of populist appeal. The world doesn’t want for happy-go-lucky indie-pop from Scandinavia, but there’s more to Sambassadeur than the odd Abba-echo or Spector tom-drum reverberation: they have heart. [Chris Buckle]