Label: Mute Records

Release Date: August 26, 2003

Website: www.mando-diao.com

Mando Diao - Bring 'Em In
Jeff Edwards

The most puzzling thing about this album is the selection of track one, "Sheepdog," to lead off the album. One imagines that this must be more due more to commercial concerns than artistic. The track opens things up with a blast of new-garage stylings that immediately lead the listener to believe that the Hives/Vines/Strokes/White Stripes/etc are once more being thrust upon us in a new and very similar form. This is a shame, and hopefully the astute listener will wait through the – admittedly very catchy – first song and get to the meat.

Influences that spring to mind at various times do includes the aforementioned "The + plural noun" bands, but also elements as diverse as Velvet Underground, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Kinks, The Doors, The Cure, Joy Division and even the Beatles. Hardly sounds like a Swedish garage band any longer, does it?

Let's not overstate things – there are songs throughout the album such as "Motown Blood" and the title track "Bring 'Em In" have more than a passing nod in common with countrymates The Hives. These are good songs, but not terribly original.

Instead, it serves Mando Diao better to focus upon the more varied songs on the disc. Specifically, songs such as "Mr. Moon," "To China With Love" and "Laurent's Cathedral" could stand up quite well in the midst of a Doors block on the local classic rock station. "Paralyzed" opens with a riff so reminiscent of Joy Division that you expect Ian Curtis's voice to follow before tearing into a nice horn-laden bouncy number. "P.U.S.A." and "Little Boy Jr." have the pop sensibilities and willingness to experiment that hearken back to mid-period Beatles.

Besides all the comparisons and influences, these guys can play. Although saying that the new garage crowd cannot play would be unnecessarily harsh, Mando Diao simply plays better. There are solos and instrumental portions that prove without a doubt that this is not a band relying solely on three chords and a distortion pedal. This is a band to take note of – for this debut and for the great promise they show at being something a bit unique on the scene in the future.

posted 10.11.03

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