The Sounds: Dying to Say This to You

Following an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” motto,  The Sounds unleash another ovaries-out barrage of New Wave female furor. Front woman Maja Ivarsson can simultaneously seduce an audience while conjuring up a saucy feminist spirit.

“Tony the Beat” delves deeper into disco sleeze than 2003’s Living in America dared, and “24 Hours” is the offspring of the best Go-Go’s songs. Doll-faced synthesizer player Jesper Anderberg tears up the dance floor throughout Dying’s too-short 35 minutes. (A party this invigorating should last much longer!)

To curb redundancy, the five Swedes throw in a few new tricks: the lovelorn ballad “Night After Night” is Ivarsson’s most vulnerable performance, a tad nasal but authentically thick with hung-over heartsickness. And the men try their hand at lead vocals on the Talking Heads shuffle of “Don’t Want to Hurt You,” the most subtle but successful experiment on the album. This David Byrne meets Human League delight is among the many examples of The Sounds‘ reverence for music of the past without turning it into cheeseball nostalgia.

They’re just as comfortable playing for snot-nosed punks on the Warped Tour as they are commanding NYC hipsters to shimmy. Theirs is a universal beat that you mustn’t resist.

Melissa Bobbitt
The Sounds (New Line)