Album Review: Young Dreams - Between Places

Norwegian collective Young Dreams promise so much hippie-dreaming deliciousness with their debut long player but one must ask: when was the last time a Nordic group flumped so badly? There's no harm in wearing influences on sleeves, but wearing them out from overuse is a massive faux pas. To whit, Footprints at the start of Between Places immediately makes you think Fleet Foxes and Animal Collective records are playing at the same time in some kind of art experiment. It seems blindingly obvious to also say the vocal section, lead by core member Rune Vanderskog echoes (all too literally) The Beach Boys. But the swathes of strings and church-hall resonance have all been heard many times before in other, far more accomplished releases. Here, they seem directionless and painfully bland. At 11 minutes long, the fabulously titled centerpiece The Girl That Taught Me To Drink and Fight should be inspiring and picturesque; orchestral arrangements abound trying to create a flying Nordic dream sequence. However, the pop sensibilities are lost among the classical music indulgences, as if the whole band have just chucked on Sigur Ròs T-shirts and planned a gig in the shadow of a dormant volcano.

The optimistic Young Dreams probably gets the balance the most right at the end of the record but by then it's too little, too late. Between Places is ambitious and epic in scale and could have been a definitive Norwegian album had it not got lost in its own cloudy fjords.