Send "Sondre Lerche " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Allmusic |
 Over the course of his short career, Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche has changed course more times than Steve McQueen racing through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt. It's part of his charm that you never quite know what he's going to do next. From the chamber pop he started out with on his first two albums (including his best until now Two Way Monologue) to the late-night jazz album (Duper Sessions), the punky new wave record (Phantom Punch), and the soundtrack (Dan in Real Life), he's been somewhat of a chameleon. It's also part of his charm that everything he's done up to Heartbeat Radio has been very good. Lerche's songwriting is tricky but light on its feet, emotionally nuanced and quick-witted, too. His voice is rich and sweet, the musicians he plays with are always good, and his musical taste is always spot-on. Heartbeat Radio not only keeps with this tradition, but it's his best work to date. Rather than being some kind of surprising U-turn, the album is a consolidation of everything he's done so far. It has his best songwriting, most effective vocals, and most accomplished sound, and stands as some of the best modern pop around at the end of the decade. Lerche draws from classic sophisticated pop throughout, whether making reference to Prefab Sprout on the wonderfully smooth "I Cannot Let You Go" or Randy Newman on the melancholy "I Guess It's Gonna Rain Today," dipping into loungy atmospheres on the swooning "Like Lazenby," or tripping through the flowers like a lovestruck sunshine pop singer on "Words & Music." He also adds some spunk to the proceedings with cynical slams on the music biz ("Goodnight") and the radio ("Heartbeat Radio") that call to mind Elvis Costello at his most bitter, and peppy rockers like "Don't Look Now" and "Easy to Persuade." It's a well-rounded, extremely listenable album from a really talented singer/songwriter. If this is the style Lerche decides to stick with for a while, that will be cause for a round of hearty cheers from fans of smart, sophisticated guitar pop everywhere. If you are a fan of said music and you don't know Sondre Lerche, this is the place to start the discovery process....full text |
| Latimes |
| Phish fans generally agree that the band's albums are just an appetizer for its anything-can-happen concerts. That's because the songwriting generally lags behind the band members' skills as performers and improvisers. But each album usually boasts a few tunes that benefit from the more concise treatment, and "Joy" -- the group's 11th studio album and its first in five years -- is no exception. Singer-guitarist Trey Anastasio (again writing with longtime lyricist-collaborator Tom Marshall) is a recovering drug addict, and several of his songs reference his struggle to regain his mental and spiritual equilibrium. "Ocelot" could be interpreted as a loopy perspective on isolation, whereas "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan" is more direct. "Gotta blank space where my mind should be," Anastasio declares. The music is rarely rote, nor does it jump, settling for a fussy yet placid amiability, whether the Vermont quartet is in boogie mode ("Kill Devil Falls") or unwinding a 13-minute progressive-rock suite ("Time Turns Elastic"). Tracks by bassist Mike Gordon ("Sugar Shack") and keyboardist Page McConnell ("I Been Around") are even less memorable....full text |
| Boston |
| Pop Sondre Lerche Heartbeat Radio Rounder ESSENTIAL “Good Luck’’ Sondre Lerche plays at the Paradise Rock Club on Sunday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18, $16 advance at www.livenation.com or 877-598-8689. Norwegian songsmith Sondre Lerche has done it again: assembled another batch of perfect pop tunes that manage to be upbeat while wistful, optimistic while nostalgic. You forget that he’s only 26; it seems like forever ago that he released his stunning debut album at the age of 19. Like its predecessors, “Heartbeat Radio’’ is a remarkably mature achievement that’s filled with the influence of bands that had broken up long before Lerche came of age: Fleetwood Mac, XTC, and, yes, the Beatles. And like those artists’ best work, “Heartbeat Radio’’ is superbly crafted and lushly orchestrated, with jangling guitars, crisp drums, and soaring strings supporting Lerche’s effortless vocals. The opening track, “Good Luck,’’ would hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in a different era. It’s a nugget of ’70s AM gold, with a sunny-but-cloudy outlook to match: “Good luck,’’ Lerche sings, “don’t you feel so bad/ Just don’t get your hopes up.’’ Yet on the very next tune, the title track, this same singer indicts the homogeneity he hears on the radio these days: “FM has become automatic/ I want to know/ Did the DJ drown in a sea of reverb and compression?’’...full text |
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