Your Whole Life is Leading up to This has been playing in my walkman
for over a week now, but I'm still not tired of it. In some cases, I
can even feel an urge to hear some songs over and over again. The album
has just the right mix of grand melancholy and electronic sound
effects, interspersed with some guitar-based pop, and then Mattias-
Lindblom's unique vocals topping it all off. To me, it's perfect.
With its melodic synthpop, melancholic cello parts and a vocal that
takes the listener on an emotional roller coaster, "Sea of Silence" has
become my favorite song of the year. Add some Depeche Mode-guitars and
you have a perfect song. It makes me want to crank up the volume and
see the waterfront whooshing by outside the subway train. And when the
strings fade into nothingness, I feel like fading out too, to stay
there without a care for duties, expectations, jobs and other
insignificant things.
"The Void" is more uptempo, but the vocal harmonies, floating a key or
two above the synth melody, leave me breathless. When Mattias says that
this is his first album, I believe him. Without a hesitating for even a
second. In a way, Your Whole Life is Leading up to This is closing the
books. It's not an ending, more a rebirth. Or the start of something
different.
The strings in "In the Dirt" form a solemn foundation where Lindblom's
vocals can really shine. The result is beautiful, just like in "Mind
Your Mind", where a piano further enhances the soundscape. "Love Earth"
was not an instant favorite, but it has grown on me. The sometimes
childlike and low-key vocals of Jessica Pilnas is a fine contrast to
Lindblom's more mature voice, which makes me think of [Swedish singer]
Fredde Wadling. Maybe it's because of the vocal contrasts, because this
song is not very similar to the duet Wadling did with Stina Nordenstam
on the Flesh Quartet song "Flow".
"...love, harmony and melancholy create a perfect symmetry."
I can't bring myself to like the chanting in "Queen", but I like the
lyrics more, interpreting them as some sort of snapshot of the
self-centered modern man. Lines such as "A queen is on tv/saying
nothing about me at all/and it's all absurd to me" speak for
themselves.
Starting off with a pop guitar in a major key, "Fools Like Me" shifts
into more familiar strings, and suddenly you're in the middle of a
Robbie Williams song! And I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way,
even Robbie has his moments. The vocals are fantastic, I might add, but
it's all just a tad too clean.
"We're dead. It's beautiful" chants the electronic voice in "Dead"
against a pumping techno beat, and when Lindblom goes into the lines
"It's easier/I made you dead/to the world you're nothing/but a torn
up/picture in my head", then I guess most of us can relate to the
disappointment we experience when love leads us astray.
2/3 of this album has me surrendering completely. The remaining 1/3 is
definitely worth listening to, but it's very difficult be objective
when you evaluate this album. Because there is so much about it that
speaks directly to me as a person. And that is the point, says Mattias.
Music is a form of communication. And the sonar signal emerging from
Vacuum Land has found a receiver, making me one of "The Vacuum People".
It might sound like a doomsday cult, but it is actually the name of
those who got the message.
I long for the time when I can once again sit there in the subway,
with "Sea of Silence" playing in my earphones, lulling me further into
a world where love, harmony and melancholy create a perfect symmetry.
And don't wake me at the Radmansgatan station, leave me alone! Leave me
alone!
"We wanted to make the best album ever, for us. We speak straight from
the heart, without euphemisms", says Mattias. And I believe him. Once
again. Maybe it is a cult after all...
Recommended songs: "Sea of Silence", "The Void", "In the Dirt", "Mind
Your Mind".
Author: Tina Arwidson
Translated by David Haglund
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