| Musicomh |
 In the accompanying publicity material, Sweden's Sambassadeur characterise this, their third album (following on from their 2004 self-titled debut and 2007's Migration) as "the extrovert album". Since it is indeed full of assured, accomplished material, this can perhaps be taken to be referring to their increase in confidence over the years, reaching its pinnacle with this release.
One of the most deeply satisfying aspects of this almost wholly satisfying album is the way in which the band succeed in the creation of moods and conveying of emotions. Where it works best - on tracks like Forward Is All - one can sense a perfect coming-together of the instrumentation (often lush and orchestral, with strings just the right side of "syrupy"), the tune, and the vocal....full text |
|
| Adequacy |
While on a drive in my hometown recently, I discovered that something truly remarkable had happened to the radio. Well, oldies radio. My trusted provider of decades-old Brill Building pop and doo-wop one-hit wonders had decided that oldies music had simply become, too old. Worse yet, the torch had been passed on to radio real-estate extraordinaire Pink Floyd, who seemed content to gloat, “The time is gone / The song is over.” Oh, how right they were!
When my initial denial and subsequent disgust began to fade, I lamented the loss of this nostalgic staple of my youth. As a child, my parents always chose “Oldies 104.1” in the car, and this music quickly became the de facto backtrack to all my backseat adventures. Road trips aside, a genuine fondness for that characteristic precious pop and soulful singing had grown over the years, usually with each hopeless crush and lost love. Though romance has always been a frequent theme in music, few modern artists manage to capture the very essence with such simple sincerity and unabashed swooning as was commonplace in the early 1960s. Admittedly, this explains my adoration for retro-pop balladeers such as Camera Obscura, Lucky Soul, and Irene. Nonetheless, there exists a noticeable dearth of current musicians able to capture that classic ‘60s sound. Fortunately, Sambassadeur’s new LP European allows me to add another name to that list....full text |
|
| Allmusic |
| Sambassadeur's 2010 full-length, European, offers a refreshing departure from the band’s previous effort, Migration -- an album that, while it was by no means bad, was ultimately a tad one-dimensional compared to Sambassadeur's earlier work, thanks in large part to its glassy-smooth production (granted, it was pretty -- but it worked to flatten out the album entirely). European can be seen as a meeting point between Migration and Sambassadeur's earlier work: it takes the jangly, shambling warmth of the band’s self-titled debut and gives it a layer of glossy varnish. It also finds the group dipping into '80s dance-pop and soft rock influences; there’s a good shake of campiness to be found on European. The result is an album with a windblown, cinematic feel. The production sounds practically dewy, something like the musical equivalent of a soft-focus lens; there are times when it teeters on the edge of sounding saccharine, especially when it comes to the crystalline piano notes that open up the album’s first track, "Stranded." European spills over with soundtrack-style flourishes: crisp, cool string arrangements ("Days," "I Can Try"); triumphant drum rolls ("Forward Is All"); and rollicking piano chords. The album’s standout track, “I Can Try,” sounds, in the best possible way, like something off the soundtrack of a John Hughes movie thanks to its oh-so--'80s instrumentation (wind chimes, synthesized strings, a drum machine, and yes, a saxophone solo). Granted, it’s the kind of approach that risks sounding goofy, but by and large, European strikes a nice balance between genuine and theatrical, shambling and shiny....full text |
|
Send "Sambassadeur " Ringtones to your Cell 
