Suburban Savages - Demagogue Days (LP)
This is an Apollon Records release.
Suburban Savages are back with their third album Demagogue Days and continue to distinguish themselves as a playful ensemble with a willingness to expand the boundaries of pop and rock. The result is unique. The catchy simplicity of pop music mixed with the mind-blowing complexity of progressive rock.
The four years since the release of Kore Wa! has been a time of change and a time of words. Lots of words. Even though we live in an age of information, it seems that we increasingly live in an age of babble, misinformation, and elephant talk. People talking without having anything to say, lacking the ability to keep quiet. Demagogue Days is an album about communication. While not being a concept album, the lyrics thematically deal with communication and the lack of it on many levels.
Suburban Savages had just started planning the final stages of the recording when the pandemic struck. It contributed to a sense of remoteness, not being able to meet regularly in the rehearsal room, only online. Mirroring the theme of the album, communication and the lack of it, the members were just a few kilometers apart, but still had to communicate as they were on opposite sides of the world. So close, yet so far away …
Demagogue Days is an album that reflects a change in both the world and within the group. Members have come and gone. the quartet that wrote and recorded this album wanted to push boundaries and create a different beast from 2017s Kore Wa! Both lyrically and musically, they wanted to go somewhere else.
While Kore Wa! mainly was Trond’s ideas and arrangements, Demagogue Days is the result of a more democratic process, with all the members being involved in writing and arranging. Consisting of eight songs, ranging from barely 90 seconds to eight minutes in length, the album showcases the band’s creative whims and playful cheerfulness. The band still masters the art of creating catchy and hummable melody lines, with influences spanning from prog, art-pop and post-punk. While the topics deal with rather serious and pressing issues, musically the band still manages to keep their quirky sense of humor.
This promises an exciting blend of compositions encompassing everything Suburban Savages has done up to now, but with more expanded structures and even more variety in styles. The music is more complex and experimental, but also dares when needed to be simple and direct. Compared to Kore Wa! there are also more symphonic elements in the music, still without sounding like a blast from the past.
Formed in Oslo in 2007 as a solo project by Trond Gjellum to record songs that did not fit into his other band Panzerzappa. Thomas Mejdell (The Samuel Jackson Five, Mt. Melodie) quickly became involved as a composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, and Anders K. Krabberod from Panzerzappa joined in on bass guitar, becoming the core of Suburban Davages. A few other members came and left. In 2017, Mari Lesteberg (Fraction Distraction) joined on keyboards and vocals.
Tracks:
Side A:
- Aroused And Confused
- Taciturnity
- Demagogue Days
- Krystle Fox
Side B:
- Iconoclast
- Let’s Talk
- Under Mirrored Skies
- The Silence Afterwards
Format: LP
Artist: Suburban Savages
Release Date: March 5, 2021
Cat. No.: ARP044LP