Not that this album would be less Mando Diao than its two predecessors, but they have managed to bring in a certain way calm, deliberateness, restraint and perhaps even perfection in their music without losing the subliminal Frantic and driving. What used unintentionally sounded exaggerated and slanted, sounds today deliberately exaggerated and diagonally. While that would listen with some other bands for the handbrake on and too much calculus, Mando Diao have mastered this balancing act.
This album is full of hits and it is not recognized as such at first glance. An album that makes the listener effort. This is a property that has been omitted intentionally in most publications of recent years. Mando Diao are taking a risk, and if you earlier this year still pondered what probably Gustaf Norén with his statement "This album will be darker than its predecessors" could have meant, now you have the answer in the ears.
The Swedish brat, thoughtless provocation belching, have developed into mature musicians and songwriters. This is unlikely to please any hard-boiled fan. Most - especially the very young - they will continue to blind love, some will be but this album too difficult and some will play the dream of Gustaf Norén, a tour with the songs from "Ode to Ochrasy" and old to the Crushers to waive, rather irritated. But whoever has it joy to follow a band from the beginning critical to witness their way and see how it evolved, which is served with this album more as well. It is so different from "Bring 'em in" and "Hurricane Bar" and yet Mando Diao, who actually manage not to copy itself, but to create something new again. And so they are their so often cited models and their size came closer than you originally wanted to believe. Only Mando Diao, who have always known it.
