Red Sleeping Beauty – Kristina

Album Review by Gary Kaill | 31 May 2016
Album title: Kristina
Artist: Red Sleeping Beauty
Label: Labrador Records
Release date: 17 Jun

More expertly assembled, deftly executed, tastefully presented electro-pop. Sheesh. Somebody buy 2016 a Boss DS-1 and make it snappy.

This Swedish indie pop trio have been dormant for nearly two decades and this is their third album since forming in 1989. Indie pop classicists will recall their personal and aesthetic connections with a particular sector of the late 80s UK scene, but even Sarah Records devotees will balk at the foppish nature of much of Kristina.

Recorded with just analogue keyboards and one acoustic guitar, it's an album possessed of a gentle nature and an infuriatingly agreeable tone. On Mi Amor, when Niklas Angergard coos, 'Whatever goes around always comes around, oh-oh-oh,' you find yourself craving bite, drama, a gram of discord. A medal for the next emerging synth-pop outfit to take their cue from, say, Dazzle Ships or Reproduction. Kristina's good manners are decidely unbecoming.

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