WEATHERDAY - Come In

Who remembers “Låt den rätte komma in“? I imagine quite a few people do; the success of this Swedish fairy tale, at once so dark and so tender, was such that an American remake soon followed, more succinctly titled “Let Me In“. In Tomas Alfredson's film, itself based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist, a cold Stockholm hosts a coming-of-age story of rare delicacy, in which a teenager bullied by his classmates lives through an intense friendship with a vampire girl. “Come In”, the debut by “Weatherday” (also Swedish), seems like an equally tender response to the 2009 film. – “Let Me in”. – “Come In”. Except this time the creep, the irresistible little gremlin, is on the other side of the door, charmingly scrawled on the album cover.

He, or she (it hardly matters, what matters here are the feelings, which have no gender), goes by Sputnik (this is the only information the artist circulates between social media and their Bandcamp account), and invites us to step into a tender, shrieking world that embraces the vocal conventions of emo alongside a thoroughly ramshackle lo-fi aesthetic. Put like that, though, it actually sounds simpler than it really is, because Sputnik's storytelling isn't linear: it branches out into long suites that recall the way Will Toledo builds his songs, as well as the theatrical intensity of Fucked Up's hardcore opera.

The heart of the record, both in placement and intensity, is “My Sputnik Sweetheart”, a nearly fourteen-minute noise-pop ride in which the suffering is expressed by battering drums and guitar, to the point that the strumming sounds as if the strings were being struck not with a pick but with a shard of glass. At least until the second movement, where a sinuous arpeggio cradles enchanted choruses lifted straight out of a Danny Elfman score. Then it's back down into tears and noise.

The noise of the guitars, never particularly processed through effects, is the main occupant of Sputnik's bedroom, but their imagination means it's joined by the most disparate solutions, ranging from obsessively tapped-out toy pianos (“Mio, Min Mio”) to triumphant applause at a school recital (“Older Than Before (Oswald Made No Way For Himself)”). Great ideas also come into play when the volume drops, as in “Water Dreamer The Same”, which creates a suspended, comforting atmosphere, weaving together different guitar lines and choruses that float like soap bubbles.

Once you get past the occasionally grating, abrasive lo-fi mix — as on “Embarassing Paintings (Agatha Showed Great Initiative In Art Class This Week)” — Weatherday's invitation is absolutely worth accepting. And who knows, maybe the Swede will soon get another one in turn, from that very Matador that already signed Car Seat Headrest, for instance.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

29/08/2019