Album Review: Those Dancing Days – In Our Space Hero Suits

When you come across a group of young, gutsy, charismatic women, who are living your life-long dream, are roughly ten years your junior, and possess the kind of attitude and energy you either never had or know you’ll never have again, it can be quite difficult to warm to them. Our green-eyed monsters stir further when we think about lead singer Linnea’s rather magnificent hair. Helen Of Troy… would be housebound were it not for the creation of ceramic straighteners and the tremendous power they yield over our ungainly frizzy locks, yet the mere sight of Linnea’s frizz-tastic barnet makes us want to weep with flat-haired envy.

Fortunately, Those Dancing Days are responsible for some of this year’s finest Northern-Soul-inspired indie-pop, so we can't, try as we may, hate them. In fact, we were incredibly excited when we heard they were finally releasing their début album; the cutely titled In Our Space Hero Suits.

Our excitment soon turned to mild dissapointment, however, when we first listened to the début offering from the lovable Scandinavian five-piece, which is a fine first effort, but ultimately lacking in the kind of party-pop-punch we were expecting. Tracks like I Know Where You Live and Duet Under Waters are almost featureless, making little, if any impact.

The contrast between this long player and their previously-released self-titled EP, is stark to say the least. Dischoe and 1000 Words - inexplicably ditched tracks from the EP - are utterly dazzling, and infinitely better than anything new they’ve produced for this album.

Clocking in at just under 40 minutes, In Our Space Hero Suits isn’t exactly an arduous journey, but things do get repetitive around the three-track mark. It’s not until you reach Hitten and Those Dancing Days - both of which featured on the magnificent aformentioned EP – that you realise just how lacklustre the whole affair is by comparison. Not all the new material is without merit however. Stand-out tracks Home Sweet Home and Falling In Fall are both multilayered, harmonious delights.

This isn’t a bad album, in fact it’s rather pleasant in parts, we just rather hoped it would be out of this world.

6/10

Released: 13/10/2008 Label: Wichita