I Am Bones Wrong Numbers Are Never Busy by: Dean Van Nguyen Mon:11-Jun-07 Label: Morningside Year: 2007 WB rating 82 out of 100

In recent years Scandinavia has become an unlikely home for producing indie talent. Artists like Kings of Convenience, Shout Out Louds and Jens Lekman have caused the region’s reputation amongst indie hipsters to rapidly rise. Taking their leads from their North American counterparts, the region has become known for producing catchy, lo-fi pop. Despite its scratchy production, ‘Young Folks’ by Peter Bjorn and John came out of nowhere to become one of last year’s biggest songs, but when you think about it, this sort of made sense. Scandinavia’s reputation was beginning to garner groups the kind of attention they never before received. So where do Sweden’s I Am Bones fit in? In a way the group and their fine debut album feel like a culmination of all these advances.

 ‘Another Peter Bjorn and John’ is what I initially thought after listening to the free download of I Am Bones’ flagship track ‘The Ostrich Approach’. Lead vocalist/songwriter Johannes Gammelby displays the same soft, understated vocals as Peter Moren, as well as sharing the band’s talent for writing an infectious twee-pop song. But on Wrong Numbers Are Never Busy, the band’s debut full length album, this is only half the story. In fact on many of the tracks here, the Pixies are the most obvious influence, right down to Gammelby’s Frank Black-esque screams on ‘Backpackers’.

The album’s ambitions seem modest (ten of the twelve tracks are under three minutes) and the arrangements are generally simple, but on repeat listens Wrong Numbers Are Never Busy reveals itself to be one of the most rewarding debuts of the year. Raucous opener ‘The Beat Is Satan’ is one of the most jarring songs to begin a pop record in recent memory, full of scratchy, out of tune guitars and unusual vocals, it’s Gaute Niemann’s bass that holds things together. It’s a bit of a red herring however, as second track ‘Get With The Program’ really kicks things off with its sweet melody and gentle string arrangement. The guitar solo and creeping bass on the bridge of ‘Talk To The Hand’ is where the Pixies influence becomes evident. Even more so on ‘Replica’, these tracks could easily of slid into the groups set list during their Bossanova/Trompe Le Monde era.

Switching between inoffensive pop gems and more aggressive rockers, the theme is consistent throughout the record. But just when you think you have the album figured out, the group throws in a James Brown sample for the hell of it on the jaunting ‘Cut Elly’. Starting with a half rapped vocal over a simple drumbeat, the sample cuts through, wearing its scratches with pride. It’s one of the group’s more experimental, playful tracks that somehow works, and underlines the fact that there are no weak songs here.

I Am Bones’ may have saved the best for last with the more expansive ‘Honeytrap’. It spends the first three minutes playing dead as the album’s quietest song, before becoming a spine tingling sixties sounding sing-along and ending in a haze of feedback. The track puts an exclamation mark on a thoroughly rewarding record.

A dozen listens deep and the album has lost none of its charm, instead revealing something new to enjoy on each listen. I’d happily take another dozen of these from the Scandinavian indie renaissance. But in I Am Bones, there is a group good enough to grow outside their twee traditions. The cream always rises to the top after all.