The Radio Dept Running Out of Love. This is an alleged polemic. But the problem with a political record where you can't easily discern the lyrical content is that unless the music is made with chainsaws and the samples of republican virgins screaming as they are sacrificed to Mammon it does become difficult to offer a black power salute in response especially for a record as gentle as this. Truly, it must be said that the music on offer here is just, achingly, lovely. First track Death to Fascism, Freedom to the People or Sloboda Narodu for the Plebs. Perhaps a bit of an overreach to compare modern Sweden to Croatia under the Nazis? I am reading the lyrics, it appears to besmirch the ideal of the Swedes as gracious hosts to the unwashed masses. Again, it's just gorgeous though, as they rock the world with their words they delicately caress our souls. Beauty can be subversive - bourgeois! It is not quite Delacroix. Second track is Swedish Guns. Apparently the right wing fascists are mowing down Swedes and their newly arrived guests in the streets. I wonder if they know the definition of fascist? Governments in Europe are mainly center right leaning left and center left leaning further left, it why you have a populist reaction such as the apparent rise of Marine Le Pen in France not truly a fascist really more a national socialist but she arrives because there isn't any real difference Sarkozy and Hollande, technocrats that drive to the same destination in different gears. This track, again, is stunning, all softly focused dream pop and the voice an ephemeral contrail over top of the shimmer. Third track, We Got Game, the 'occupy Frihamnen' anthem. It's odd that even as the most powerful religion of the last 100 years has been proven to be collectivism they seem to be wary of it all just crumbling away as if the edifice lacks a foundation of popular support. The Swedish consensus is a bit more healthy than the US, they believe in government control and they regularly offer it an electoral mandate for every aspect of life but at least they are willing to pay for it. This song seems to be a cry for more direct and possibly violent action because the current government is going to imprison all of his friends seemingly because they are deft with a twitter post and hold the fate of the State precarious in the shadow of their witty and voluminous Facebook ripostes. But the song is a bit of a wet noodle. Will anyone be steadied at the barricades by someone with a Bluetooth speaker and a Radio Dept song? The lyrics are impressionistic, very 21st century that, they don't represent any studied opinion just an emotional fulmination. Next track is a bit empty, a brief instrumental, perhaps to spare us from the intensity of the previous four tracks. Sarcasm tag. Next track is occupied. Normally I don't care about the lyrics on records because in most cases they are the weakest aspect of the records I listen to. The exceptions stand out because the rule is mundanity. It is much more difficult to write lyrics. Music can be as vague as this and still sound romantic and breathtaking even as we wonder if its rudimentary nature pegs us as simpletons. The words here are a bit of a jumble, hope of a common cause, a common enemy and then betrayal? He was not a fan of Reinfeldt, I am a bit not up to date on my Swedish PM's until the current occupant, a trade unionist so perhaps this track is disillusionment, him being expressed in miniature. Will there be disappointment anthems for Obama? We wonder if true reflection will be possible with the mythical nature of his regime as remembrances exist now. Again another lovely tune. There isn't a great deal of variety on these tracks. I recall when the first Radio Dept record was released on Shelflife and there was a bit more diversity, some JAMC aping, some Ride devotion, a touch of 2 bit indiepop. But now it's all beige, it's new age for aging indie kids. Here's a pop track, the Kelley Polar sort, bloodless. It's charming even with the pet allusion to Cuba. What is the European fascination with Cuba? A nation strangled for the principled stand of opposing American imperialism. But the Cuba policy was a moral stand, it contradicts all of what he is standing for here with his talk of betrayal and failing founding principles. He wishes the boogeyman did not exist. Next track, an anthem for shut-ins Can't Be Guilty. It could be an assailment of those who would sleep through the peril of this very moment. It's a bit like a Prefab Sprout track, dream a little dram of when love breaks down in my heart. These narcoleptics are missing the rallies, they are not making placards with the Mercedes symbol, they are bespoiling the air with the public consciousness with their inanity. It's another lovely pop tune. This seems to be my most poignant commentary on the record, I think it purty. Committed to the Cause, a bit of Stone Roses swagger here and more of the enervated commentary on the state of the current opposition. This I can get with, but when your state of mind mostly matches the publically consumed culture differing only in degree in your delusion over the possibility of utopia, when every bit of popular culture at least adheres to a sanitized version of your reality it is difficult to muster a fiery passion. Were fascists truly a threat he'd probably be able to reach down for a but more vitriol but as most of his worries are part of a fictitious existential crisis it's a bit vanilla and ephemeral. NPR will hail it as visionary and furious but cute seems the most appropriate adjective here. They probably consumed a great number of drugs while creating this record as it now conjures a bit of the Happy Mondays here but instead of sedatives they needed a little more vigor, a little more tiger penis and less of the hippie lettuce. New age instrumental for the ninth track, two instrumentals on a political record leaves my revolutionary heart longing. Unfocused drift off, interstellar musing samples, an Sk-1 preset drum beat and some light panting. I would have left that one off. Last track, Teach Me To Forget. A more personal lament? A plea for his partner to enjoin on him the power to live without regret. It's a bit direct and pedestrian, it's The Drugs Don't Work for a new generation. It's still gorgeous, minimal, sparse and the percussion mimics my heartbeat. I am a sucker for heartbeat percussion, we have established this long ago, is it a physical manifestation of my partisanship. I respond to the heart, to the sentiment here even if I would find the members of the band's politics eternally silly. They move me still.