"in a parallel universe, songs like 'mirador' and 'caravan' would be number one forever..."
bold claim.
situated somewhere in the bermuda triangle between sufjan stevens, the postal service, and sigur ros, there is efterklang. the danish group, which has five core members and four additional touring members, puts a lot of emphasis on how "otherworldly" their sound is (as you can tell from the quote above). to my ears, however, parades sounds a lot more like the bizarre creation of an indie pop mad scientist than hot alien jamz.
the name "parades" come from the album's creative mission, a desire to link song sections so they parade through a listener's ears, but, oddly enough, parades itself has more than a little marching-band feel. "mirador," the album's first single, actually features a brass quintet, playing with raucous cheer, and the sheer exuberance of efterklang (and their assorted contributors, a string quartet and three separate choirs as well as the brass) inspires visions of dance troupes backflipping down city streets. parades dances past you with a nervous energy, awesome in its eccentric majesty, melodies, harmonies, singalongs bursting from its seams. like symphonic shoegaze on speed, efterklang has redefined "over the top" in the best possible way. songs range from the reflective ("mimeo") to the reckless (the excellent "maison de réflexion") as efterklang synthesizes their mutant pop, weird yet wonderful.
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