-valis Pick of the Week

Hail Voyagers! 2012 is here indeed. Ushering in this brand new year is a release which came out at the very end of 2011 and worthy of attention by all who enjoy our favorite sounds.

From Sweden, with their self-titled debut album, it's The Early Days! The album is a worthy successor to two highly-acclaimed EPs; 2008's The Early EP, and 2010's Contraries.




Sonically, this album roars. Big, stadia-filling, sounds emanating from this thing. Not too far off from their countrymen, The Soundtrack of Our Lives. This comes as less a surprise when you learn Mark Gardener was along for the Ride as the man responsible for mixing the album.

Stylistically, the band are at a peak in terms of songwriting and instrumentation. There's not a duff track in the bunch, and at ten tracks that's saying something anymore. The studio was their friend and they knew how to get exactly what they wanted from its interiors.

As they say in their press release: "Finally the long and winding road from industrious songwriting to the release of an album is behind us. We kindly ask you to take over the wheel from this point. We have finished the job and The Early Days debut album belongs to us no more."

Here's "Butterfly" from the album played live last August at the Way Out Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden:



And "There She Falls":
The She Falls

Here more at SoundCloud.


You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.