Swedish album of the week, week 50: Mando Diao - Never Seen The Light Of Day

Tracklist
1. If I Don't Live Today, Then I Might Be Here Tomorrow (2:00)
2. Never Seen The Light Of Day (4:12)
3. Gold (3:54)
4. I Don't Care What The People Say (1:51)
5. Mexican Hardcore (4:37)
6. Macadam Cowboy (1:41)
7. Train On Fire (2:52)
8. Not A Perfect Day (2:54)
9. Misty Mountains (2:24)
10. One Blood (6:42)
11. Dalarna (7:54)

Mando Diao is a bustling band. Four albums in five years and the band is still bubbling with ideas. Their rock music has been more or less connected to many genres: 60's rhythm and blues and soul, blues, rock'n'roll, garage rock, Britpop etc. And they have been compared to The Hives - I think it's because of the fierce energetic garage rock, Oasis - that would be the catchy Britpop influences and Babyshambles - probably the unpolished sound. Before their fourth album, Never Seen The Light Of Day they may have thought: "Hey! Let's cool down for a second, check out our roots and make something completely own."

The roots means the city of Borlänge in Dalarna in Sweden. For your information Dalarna (meaning "the dales/valleys") is a "landskap" meaning province in Sweden. From there they have collected a folk sound and all the accompanying strings you could ever dream of. But they also glance towards the east, beyond the big watery mass of the Atlantic Ocean, towards the American continent. From there they have collected a country/americana sound and all the accompanying acoustic guitars and steel guitars you could ever dream of. This new direction for Mando Diao can be credited to the producer of this album, Björn Olsson, former member of The Soundtrack Of Our Lives.

There's no mistaking Mando Diao's vital energy or melodic jargon. The opener and lead single with the long and incongruous title If I Don't Live Today, Then I Might Be Here Tomorrow, is a song that could work as a reminder that one is really alive. It's wonderful, but there's a Swedish saying that wonderful is short, and this is only 2 minutes. After that blast-off Mando Diao keeps the pace up with the beautiful title track where the folky strings are to the rock as the classical-oriented strings were to the electronica on Björk's Hunter. I am fully aware that this must be the forty-eleventh time I make a reference to Björk and at least the second time to Hunter. But what can I say? She's the best!

The titles on the later half of the album are Western-inspired: Gold, Mexican Hardcore (which is Mexican, but not hardcore), Macadam Cowboy, Train On Fire and Misty Mountains. I Don't Care What People Say sound like taken from an American western film. It's an example of:

1. Mando Diao's cooled down, softer attitude. Songs like Not A Perfect Day and Macadam Cowboy are obvious examples, but the whole album is a little less snorting garage rock than before, leaving room for the folky, more mature sound.

2. That even though there's a softer side Mando Diao can't really restrain themselves at times. Many of the softer tracks are quite short, it's like the rascals can't sit still too long. Macadam Cowboy is just the silence before the storm. Mando Diao swiftly leaps into the bolting Train On Fire, where the old garage rock'n'roll glory of Long Before Rock'n'Roll at places shines through the thunderous clouds. But towards the end the boys manages to concentrate quite a while when they end the album with the two longest songs: One Blood and the almost instrumental Dalarna.

Never Seen The Light Of Day is a title that doesn't speak truth about Mando Diao or their album. They have seen the most in their career and this is an album of development and maturity as a band. They have showed that they can handle many different genres, styles and approaches to their music. The melancholy the picture of the girl in her bed expresses is misleading for this delightful, vital album. The beautiful sepia-coloured picture of the band dressed as fiddlers would have been more fitting but a little too obvious.

It has been a great Autumn for folk and country music and Mando Diao surprised me when they as newcomers to the genre placed themselves high on at least my own list. With this album, they may unfortunately have lost some narrow-minded fans I am afraid, but they have certainly won lots of new as well.

Mando Diao - Never Seen The Light Of Day (ysi)