Love Is All/ Two Thousand And Ten Injuries

Love Is All
Two Thousand And Ten Injuries
(Polyvinyl Records)

Gothenburg’s Love Is All are all the proof you need that there’s more to Scandinavians than caricaturing US and UK youth culture. After a stint on the What’s Yr Rupture label, third album ‘Two Thousand And Ten Injuries’ finds them touching all at once on the exuberant punk of The Raincoats, glorious '60s sunshine pop and the emotive soundscapes of the Liars and YYY’s.
Opener 'Bigger Bolder' marries the chugging urgency of early Strokes with the irresistible Hammond organ bursts of The Clean’s 'Tally Ho', whilst 'A Side In A Bed' with its heartbreaking lyrics, chanted yearningly by singer Josephine Olausson bathes in reverb heavy guitars, cutting through her emotive cry of "I want to be somebody’s baby" as the song fades to its desperate end.
The new wave sounds of their earlier efforts are now fleshed out and punctuated by bigger and yes bolder, hook heavy material such as 'Dust' - the final shouts of which exclaim "And I Want, and I need, to be rid of these things". It's reminiscent of the chorus to Def Leppard’s cock rock heavy-weight ‘Animal’ and all the more appealing for it.
But the stand-out of this set is 'Kungen'. Written in the aftermath of a chance encounter with the King of Sweden, it’s a shoe-in winner for best intro ever, the ‘ba ba ba’ refrain and galloping drums recalling those Gods of the 60’s pop chorus The Zombies and The Turtles. Love Is All are expanding their pop palette and having a lot of fun in the process.