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Album Review
by SashaS
29-10-2001
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| 'There Is Only Now' |
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Eskobar: 'There Is Only Now'
(V2)
Eskobar are Swedish, which means they deal in delightfully depressing pop songs
Upon seeing Eskobar play one-off London show to present their debut ‘Til We’re Dead’ I semi-seriously commented “It is not surprising that Swedes have the highest rate of teenage suicides when the nation’s musician make such deeply depressing music”, which effectively ended my friendship with this Swedish girlfriend. I’m sorry but it is the fact that prevails on the band’s second album, ‘There Is Only Now’, as well. And yet, that’s its beauty.
Don’t get it wrong, Eskobar’s music is swell, mature, listenable but deep, deep-down it hits the nerve that might be better left undisturbed. It touches the darkest sides of human psyche and you really have to be mentally strong to enter its world. The opening song here, ‘Move On’, tells a story of two souls opportunity’s left behind on a sidewalk of a small-town under an ‘empty sky’.
At the same time the melody is joyous, vibrant and picking its pace up on a couple of occasions. More pathos (a la Joy Division) is encountered in ‘Why London’, more pop-orchestral is ‘Into Space’, ‘Worship You’ masterfully sails on a wind of rejection. ‘Save The Day’ transports you somewhere else, in space and time, ‘Skyscraper’ is so hypnotic it took me several lungfuls to shake off its spell.
Eskobar, a trio of Daniel Bellqvuist, Frederick Zäll and Robert Birming, hail from a village three miles outside of Stockholm that might explains why these guys keep it simple, during songwriting, studio-work and performing. These are painfully beautiful songs, ditties about human shortcomings and frailties, our desperate emotional dependence, portraying characters as obsessive social animals. You can’t escape (human) nature but attempt to understand and civilize it.
This is album about loneliness, hurt and coldness of people being too self-centred, busily lost in their little insignificance. ‘There’s Only Now’ is a firm statement about the shortness of everything and a warning about wastage of time that is too precious. Its (underlining) message is to disregard all and Carpe Diem. That’s the optimism of it all, Eskobar do not trade in salvations. Their currency is, unlike Euro, intelligent and thoughtful music that occasionally guests a vocalist, like their label mate-ess Heather Nova on ‘Someone New’.
Eskobar picked their name from a bin of discarded band names and it suits them fine – Eskimo bar somewhere around the Polar Circle they are performing at; clad in all-black they are sticking out like a finger of life’s unfulfilled desire. These Swedes make albums that are melancholic (but ‘comedic’ compared to Radiohead), sonically imaginative and magical, providing you more than what you dare expect from pop music nowadays.
8.6/10
SashaS
29-10-2001
Eskobar’s ’There Is Only Now’ is released 29 October 2001 on V2
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