This Stockholm quintet is arguably the most underrated rock band from the past few years. 2016's Ambulance was spectacular. Sometimes referred to as the Scandinavian version of Red House Painters, The Amazing take deep dives into patient, gorgeous, and mesmerizing post-rock. The songs conjure up wistfulness almost on demand, and they produce a yearning that teeters between healing and heartache.
The soundscapes reward patience as they slowly draw listeners in with their rolling meditations. Melodic guitars intersect with a throbbing rhythm section--they rise and fall, point and bend, and shimmer through gossamer strands. Christopher Gunrup's warm but arresting vocals tease out phrases and hold them until he almost breaks. When the mix washes over his voice, it becomes merely another instrument, lending an air of the inscrutable.
Subtle climaxes emerge on "Pull" as tidal guitars swell, swirl, and recede. Gunrup sings about entangled lives that can never come undone. "I heard from others, it's the way you pull / Like a funeral song gone wrong / But anyway, it's better than this sleepwalking." On "Voices Sound," the band softly employs reverb for sparkling shoegaze passages, while "Rewind" manages to sound spacey and pastoral at the same time.
The drifting psych-pop is indelible, but there are elements of Laurel Canyon folk-rock hidden just beneath the surface of the band's electricity. Cases in point: "For No One" starts with lovely Kozelek-style fingerpicking and then finishes amid spectral echoes, while "Leave Us A Light" sounds like a stellar missing track from April.
The Amazing's songs reach for hard-earned majesty--an opening at the end of the trail, a break in the clouds, a light in the distance. Though In Transit often evokes a strong sense of nostalgia, the music also creates an enveloping sense of the present moment.
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