Club 8 – The People's Record

Album Review by Chris Buckle | 31 May 2010
Album title: The People's Record
Artist: Club 8
Label: Labrador
Release date: 31 May

Sweden’s Club 8 have a reputation as a fairly happy bunch (deceptively miserable domestic hit Jesus Walk With Me notwithstanding). But with titles like My Pessimistic Heart and We’re All Going to Die (leaving aside Isn’t That Great?, which in the context we’ll assume has a sarcastic crust a foot thick), it’s safe to conclude their seventh album stems from less-than-chipper inspirations.

Yet even with such heavy melancholy at play, Club 8 still sound like a party in your heart in the middle of summer. While reluctant to use the horribly-colonial descriptor ‘world music’, the influence of non-Euro stylings certainly assists with the spirit-lifting: adopted African rhythms make tracks like Shape Up! sound like The Very Best covering the very best of Camera Obscura, while a Latin sashay helps distinguish Like Me and others from more straight-laced twee-pop fare; just one delightful contrast in an album full of them. [Chris Buckle]

http://www.myspace.com/club8