Rating:   6 Ratings     12345  

The Wannadies Before & After Parasol

      Back then no one in the Brit Pop music scene had a bloody clue who they were, what they sung or even what they wanted. The soon to be hit single, "You And Me Song," was released along with the highly rated album Be A Girl, resulting in 1996 being the make or break year for sunny-happy Swedish poppers, The Wannadies.

Track listing: 01 Little By Little 02 Nothing Wrong 03 Piss On You 04 Skin 05 Uri Geller 06 All Over Me 07 Disko 08 Singalong Son 09 Come With Me (Till Things Get Better) 10 Happy 11 Can't Stop You 12 Love Letter

      Taking shape as a two-part CD concept, the first 6 rockers of this their newest album Before & After are essentially for getting ready, going out and getting lashed kind of music whereas the last 6 ballads are for coming home, fumbling with the keys in the lock, nursing a hangover and chilling out.

      With the bouncy-boingy rhythms and hair-bouncing beats of "Little By Little," there is no doubt that this opening track feeds off the original trademark sound of The Wannadies. However, by track 2, "Nothing Wrong," these Swedish darlings already have me confused. There is no break between track 1 and 2 and now track 2 sounds virtually the same as track 1.

      Already a little disillusioned and disgruntled, I really feel the force of a boot in the ass as the third track rubs salt into my semi-open wounds. "Piss On You" leaves me dumbfounded, not sure whether to laugh or cry. For any die-hard Wannadies fan, this track may as well be about lead singer Pär Wiksten and his cronies standing on stage, trousers round their ankles, emptying their brimming bladders upon the faces of their cash paying fans. It’s even worse when delivered with sing-songy male and female harmonies complete with twangy bass and cheery “take a walk down the street” whistling.

      By track 5, Uri Geller, I’ve picked up on a hidden trait that comes from many of The Wannadies previous albums. With lyrics of “winter is asleep and springs too lazy,” “come summer come soon, come summer, come soon,” they are completely bloody obsessed with the weather and in particular spring and summer. I know that the Swedes can get it pretty crap with the seasons but Christ alive! I thought the Brits bored everyone to tears with their damm obsession with rain, wind and snow.

      Falling over the listening edge and slipping down the slow descent into the mellowness of tracks 6 to 12, the head nodding, eyes closed sounds of "Come With Me" and "Happy" are the sweetest ballads on the CD with waltzing beats and harmonies good enough to instigate hazy passionate “after wild night out ” sex to.

      If you haven’t already drifted off into la-la-land or crashed fully clothed on the couch, with beer smelling drool sliding down your cheek, by the time "Love Letter," the last track on the CD, plays then you haven’t miss much. I wouldn’t wake the dead from its slumber to rewind. Just let it play and then end.

      In all, Before & After leaves me feeling somewhat refreshed and chilled but also a little disappointed. The Wannadies sound, although meant to contain its sameness and purity, is too much the same for my liking. The vocals still sound as though they were sung via a long distance telephone line rather than a microphone and the song writing and harmonic approach still contains heavy tinges of 90s Brit-Pop influence.

      If their aim was to get listeners pumped up for a night out and then brought back down to earth before the hangover sets in, then they have certainly achieved their quest. But if you were expecting The Wannadies to have matured their sound from all too familiar pubescent happy strumming to a new evolution, then they still haven’t managed to turn their baby steps into long strides.

-Conrad Buck 03/11/04