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MEER – Playing House
It’s January, it’s too cold to exist outside (not that is a good idea to roam the streets in those times anyway), the holiday season just passed by and now we’re all back to our monotone everyday life. For me, it gets pretty depressing around this time of the year and usually, I start blasting the same cliché indie festival hits to lift my spirits. But thanks to the Norwegian 8-piece alt-pop orchestra MEER I will have something fresh for 2021.
Their “Playing House” is coming to kill the winter blues and has all the right tools – catchy hooks, memorable melodies, depth and complexity. Judging by the fact that the first single dates back to 2018 it’s safe to say that this album has been cooking for a while, which has only made it more refined.
The band blends that easy-going pop sound with the grandiosity of the symphonic orchestration so seamlessly, that even the “I don’t listen to anything released after 1976” prog snobs might consider adding them to their playlists.
‘Picking Up The Pieces’ is the grand start I didn’t expect. Something I like about the whole album is how well structured it is, seemingly every tone is at the exact right place and this is easy to hear from the very first song.
Up next comes one of the two singles, ‘Beehive’. It is an absolute banger, can’t get it out of my head. Something about a woman with such a powerful voice listing badass historical women is very satisfying and sticks with you.
Later in the album, we hear the question “Have you ever heard a song that could melt away the sorrow?” – That’s for sure ‘Child’, with its simple pleasures described in the lyrics, mellow tone, rhythmic pace and the cool vocal harmonies. As much as I love the harmonizing between Johanne and Knut Kippersund, the vocals here give a very nice different vibe.
‘Across the ocean’ is this light-hearted, beautiful, hopeful track, which filled my heart with joy the first time I heard it. Perfect choice for a single. Combined with the video it took me down a memory lane of my best summer moments. I’ve heard the call of the sea countless times, and yet that feeling of adventure fills me up even just by thinking about crossing it again.
MEER – Across the Ocean (click here if the video doesn’t play)
The following ‘She goes’ drastically shifts the tone with the heavy string intro. The power that is oozing when the entire band plays together is fantastic and that acapella bit amplifies that.
In ‘Lay it down’ we once again get to experience all aspects of the musical craftsmanship the 8-piece orchestra has to offer in about 7 minutes. And to top it all off, MEER have a really cool surprise at the end of the album!
I love music that makes me feel alive and appreciate the beauty all around us. You know the feeling that Studio Ghibli movies give you by romanticizing the regular life and further motivating you to be the main character of your own story. Currently I might not be able to go out there and live my full-blown teenage coming of age fantasy, but I could at least close my eyes and pretend and “Playing House” is the perfect soundtrack for that.
Tracklist:
- Picking Up The Pieces
- Beehive
- All At Sea
- Songs Of Us
- Child
- You Were A Drum
- Honey
- Across The Ocean
- She Goes
- Where Do We Go From Here
- Lay It Down
This, for me , is a missed opportunity. Love the music, but the “wall of sound production” lets the song craft down. There are great opportunities here to emphasize accent and space between instruments an voices, but too often it just goes full tilt into maximum loudness. Look forward to a Steven Wilson remix.
Adrian