Radio Dept. - Passive Aggressive: Singles 2001-2010

  by Richard Lewis

published: 28 / 1 / 2011

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Review

Riding in on a huge wave of deserved acclaim in 2004, the Radio Dept’s superlative debut album 'Lesser Matters' announced the arrival of the wayward Swedes in stunning fashion. Boasting some of the best pop hooks since fellow countrymen the Cardigans were in their prime, put simply the trio were responsible for some of the best pop music of the past decade. Pop music in the old fashioned sense mind, minus any Cowell-esque mangling, autotuned vocals or endless singles with ‘featuring’ credits on them. Initially starting their career as a fairly straightforward indie pop group in musical terms, their burgeoning interest in electronica over the course of the decade saw them move into territory occupied by melancholic electro pop practitioners New Order and the Pet Shop Boys. The quieter moments of My Bloody Valentine’s excursions into dream pop are also evoked along with the Cocteau Twins’ beatific glide. Although the ‘Dept suffered a slight dip in quality with their second LP, the poorly distributed 'Pet Grief', represented here by a solitary track, their singles lined up here chronologically never tailed off. Opening with ‘Why Won’t You Talk About It?,’ the Jason Pierce trick of simple, direct lyrics that contain a devastating emotional truth is consummately recreated. ‘Where Damage Isn’t Already Done’ matches dark, subdued vocals with an irresistible melody, a theme ‘The Worst Taste in Music’ continues. A bitter complaint about vocalist Johan Duncanson's romantic replacement, the track matches the quality of its title, hinging on an almost ska-like piano, spare acoustic strums and understated New Order guitar riff. ‘Annie Laurie’ featuring a non-more lo-fi vocal begins like an ancient gospel number with a woozily played guitar line introduced halfway through that grows in stature with every listen. ‘Freddie and the Trojan Horse’ and ‘Bachelor Kisses’ meanwhile sound like the greatest tracks Tennant, Lowe and Johnny Marr never cooked up whilst collaborating together some years back in Electronicsa. ‘Never Follow Suit’ a close cousin of Saint Etienne’s Neil Young cover ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ continues the group’s lyrical preoccupation with school, containing a sample of a black American teenager discussing exclusion. ‘Pulling Our Weight’, included on Sophia Coppola’s 'Marie Antoinette' soundtrack comes across like the Jesus and Mary Chain under strict instructions to keep the noise down. Elsewhere, ‘Heaven’s on Fire’, suspiciously sounding like their greatest ever moment from last year’s 'Clinging to a Scheme', begins with a sample demanding the destruction of bogus capitalist culture before a delirious keyboard loop kicks in and goes on to distill the group’s essence in three and a half exuberant minutes exactly. Early editions of the album come with a side order of B-sides which is inevitably patchier, yet the group largely treat this now sadly disappearing practice with reverence with tracks as strong as ‘Slottet’ and their off-kilter cover of ‘Mad About the Boy’. The Singles LP proper concludes with ‘The New Improved Hypocrisy’, (“We don’t mind democracy/We can find a way around it”) a symphonic stand alone 45 that provides ample proof The Radio Dept’s decade long enthusiasm for treating the single as an event hasn’t dimmed one iota. If you buy only one obscure Swedish pop group’s English language Best Of album this year, buy this one. Twice.

Track Listing:-

1 Why Won't You Talk About It?
2 Where Damage Isn't Already Done
3 Annie Laurie
4 Ewan
5 Pulling Our Weight
6 This Past Week
7 The Worst Taste In Music
8 We Made The Team
9 Bachelor Kisses
10 Freddie And The Trojan Horse
11 David
12 Heaven's On Fire
13 Never Follow Suit
14 The New Improved Hypocrisy
15 Liebling
16 We Would Fall Against The Tide
17 You And Me Then?
18 Peace Of Mind
19 Tåget
20 Slottet
21 What You Sell
22 Mad About The Boy
23 Closing Scene
24 Messy Enough
25 The Idle Urban Contemporaries
26 All About Our Love
27 On Your Side
28 The One

Have a Listen:-