The Radio Dept. CD Review

Label: Labrador Records
The Radio Dept
Clinging To A Scheme

theradiodept.com
www.myspace.com/officialradiodept


By Mike Bax

The Radio Dept. is a three piece band from Lund, Sweden and they remain relatively unknown in North America. Likely their biggest claim to fame is three tracks from The Radio Dept made it onto the soundtrack for the Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette. The band’s earlier material is rife with distortion and feedback, but all of that seems to be replaced with atmospherics and synths on Clinging To A Scheme.

While Clinging To A Scheme is technically The Radio Dept.’s third release, the band has released numerous singles and EPs over the past decade, with many songs being omitted from their albums.

The band take comparisons to acts like My Bloody Valentine and The Cocteau Twins a lot, but I hear a similarity in Johan Duncanson’s vocal inflection to Tim Burgess from The Charlatans UK. The material on Clinging To A Scheme is all very easy on the ears, owing much to the sounds of UK bands from the early nineties.

Expect big things from The Radio Dept. in the coming months. Clinging To A Scheme is a wonderfully addictive listen, with enough moving songs on the album to win over fans spanning multiple genres of music. The album is scheduled for release here in North America in the coming months. You can download the song ‘David’ for free from the label’s website.