The Radio Dept. - Albums Collection 2003-2010 (3CD)

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The Radio Dept. - Albums Collection 2003-2010 (3CD)

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The Radio Dept. were one of the more successful shoegaze-influenced indie rock bands to come out of Sweden in the early 2000s, making waves among indie aficionados on the strength of their critically acclaimed first release, Lesser Matters. Elin Almered and Johan Duncanson formed a prototypical version of the group in Lund, Sweden, in 1995 while they were in high school, naming the group after a gas station called Radioavdelningen. Almered and Duncanson disbanded almost as soon as they'd found a name, but Duncanson revived the group three years later, teaming up with Martin Larsson. Bassist Lisa Carlberg, drummer Per Blomgren, and keyboardist Daniel Tjader rounded out the lineup in 2001, and things took off for the group at that point. They sent a demo to Sonic magazine, which went on to feature the band on a CD sampler. Swedish indie giant Labrador caught wind of the demo via the sampler and snapped the band up; the group's debut full-length, Lesser Matters, arrived two years later, during which time Blomgren amicably split with the group. That album and the band's second release on Labrador, 2005's Pulling Our Weight EP, received widespread attention with the release of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, which featured "Keen on Boys," "Pulling Our Weight," and "I Don't Like It Like This."

Carlberg left the group soon after Pulling Our Weight was released, and the group refrained from hiring another bassist, opting instead for the use of a drum machine on its next album. That release, 2006's Pet Grief, found Duncanson and Larsson turning away from the guitar-driven aspects of their first full-length and delving into synth pop in the spirit of the Pet Shop Boys. Due to various factors, including the fact that the band didn't tour heavily in support of the album, Pet Grief failed to sell as well as its predecessor and received little attention from the mainstream music press. The Radio Dept. took their time recording material for their next album, and it wasn't until summer of 2008 that a new single, Freddie and the Trojan Horse, was released. More delays led to nothing further surfacing until the next summer, when the single David was released. The album that had been rumored to be finished in late 2008, Clinging to a Scheme, finally saw the light of day in April of 2010.

Margaret Reges, Allmusic.com

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The Radio Dept. - Albums Collection 2003-2010 (3CD)

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The Radio Dept. - Albums Collection 2003-2010 (3CD)

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The Radio Dept. - Albums Collection 2003-2010 (3CD)

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The Radio Dept. are an indie rock band who play fuzzed-out, ramshackle pop songs, and Lesser Matters, their debut full-length, was self-recorded in homes and small studios with unabashedly lo-fi production values, but it somehow manages to project a timeless elegance and aplomb that belie this unassuming provenance. The album crystallizes and perfects a certain strain of understated, sophisticated, genially gritty modern pop/rock, drawing on a host of familiar 1980s post-punk touchstones from shoegaze and noise pop (My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain) to vintage indie pop (Orange Juice, Felt) and major-league rockers like the Cure and New Order (both of whom, not so coincidentally, appeared alongside The Radio Dept. on Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette soundtrack) to create something that doesn't seem like it should be all that extraordinary, but ends up as much more than the sum of its parts. And those parts are already pretty enjoyable in themselves – the guitars, most prominently, sometimes rangy languorous jangles but more often bleary, gloriously distorted smears that make anything else around them seem cleanly recorded by comparison, from cheap and crunchy drum machines to Johan Duncanson's wispy, barely-there vocals, which are merely draped in reverb when the rest of a track is draped in fuzz. But, crucially, where Lesser Matters really shines is in the songwriting. There are truly too many highlights to list, from the dynamic one-two punch that opens the album – after the gentle, synth-kissed preamble "Too Soon," drummer Per Blomgren clicks off the relatively raucous "Where Damage Isn't Already Done" in a burst of sloppy, quasi-punk energy – to nostalgic, ambling pop songs like "1995" and "Your Father" to the twin fuzz-drenched peaks of "Keen on Boys" and "Against the Tide." Music this stylish and atmospheric can often be great-sounding but emotionally empty, but Duncanson's indelible melodies and vividly sketched lyrics – fittingly melancholy, but not hopelessly mopey – prevent these songs from ever feeling detached despite the hazy production and his often dispassionate delivery, and make this the rare retro-informed album that fully deserves to stand alongside its influences.

K. Ross Hoffman, Allmusic.com

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The Radio Dept. - Albums Collection 2003-2010 (3CD)

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In the chorus of Pet Grief's lead single and catchiest song, Radio Dept. head Johan Duncanson makes the touching if rather petty confession that the only reason he's able to withstand his jealous despair is the knowledge that his would-be romantic rival has "the worst taste in music." Well, if it makes him feel better, there's certainly no doubting his and his bandmates' taste – like their buzzy, buzzed-about debut, Pet Grief evinces an impeccably fashionable roll call of influences from British post-punk and shoegaze to more recent electronic indie and dream pop, and if that's not enough, the hook of "What Will Give?" offers the gratuitously hip reference: "I want to hide, like Jandek before playing live." But taste only gets you so far – if you're going to wear your influences on your sleeve, you'd better have your heart on it too, if not some other tricks up it as well. Lesser Matters had the heart, the humanity, the class, the confidence, and the pop chops, in spades, to pull off its stylish simulations without ever seeming rotely regurgitative, but this sophomore set, to some extent, lets its stylishness supersede its substance. It's not that Radio Dept. have dramatically altered their approach, although there are definitely discernible differences. The band's always somewhat fluid lineup is now down to three – they've gained a keyboard player and lost a bassist and a drummer since the first full-length, and the (apparently intentional) effects are evident in an increased reliance on synthesized atmospherics and programmed drum machine beats, which still sound as gloriously cheap as ever. Their lush lo fi luster is only slightly diminished – that is to say: these productions are, on the whole, slightly more polished, though they're still amply capable of generating that woozy, wistful warmth. And there's a somewhat streamlined feeling to the album in dynamic terms as well, with less song to song variety – there are none of the shambolic, nearly twee numbers which were so effective interspersed among Lesser Matters' oceans of fuzz, and in fact, apart from the spirited, saturated "Every Time," there's not even all that much distortion here. But the main issue is that songs themselves just aren't as engaging this time out. Duncanson's vocals are practically buried in reverb throughout, which certainly doesn't help matters on that count (though it arguably adds to the album's overall atmosphere), but even with repeated listens there are only a handful of numbers – most notably "Worst Taste" and the title track – which stand out as comparable to the remarkably consistent quality of the debut. It may be that they were just more interested in album-length ambience than stand-alone pop this time around – a couple of brief, spacy instrumentals seem to suggest as much. In that sense the album must certainly be regarded as a success; it's a rich and evocative mood piece, and still eminently worth hearing. It's just a minor disappointment when a band so adept at bridging the style-substance divide decide to limit themselves to just one facet of their talents.

K. Ross Hoffman, Allmusic.com

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The Radio Dept. - Albums Collection 2003-2010 (3CD)

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The run-up to the release of the Radio Dept.’s third album, Clinging to a Scheme, seemed endless by the time it finally came out in the spring of 2010. It seemed that every few months a release date was announced and then passed, with only a couple singles to show for the band’s efforts. When it did appear, it was clear that anyone hoping for a return to the fuzzy, lo-fi sound of their debut record Lesser Matters may be disappointed, as the band has unloaded almost all the aspects of the shoegaze attack that characterized their first recordings. Instead, they’ve followed the direction of Pet Grief and have taken another step in the direction toward the Pet Shop Boys. That is to say, they are more informed by synth pop and less by guitar rock. This further refining and synthing of their approach doesn’t mean they’ve cleaned up and become all slick though, the trio still make sure to bathe the sound in bucketfuls of reverb, and Johan Duncanson’s voice is treated with all kinds of effects, often giving him the sound of a guy at the end of a hallway singing through a paper towel roll. It’s a time-honored trick of taking pretty pop songs and roughing them up, and the group work it like old pros here. While songs like "A Token of Gratitude" or "You Stopped Making Sense" would sound great on just acoustic guitars or piano, giving them some gritty noise and fuzzy atmosphere manages to impart an extra boost of emotional power that makes the album really stick. Just as importantly, the band have written what might be their best batch of songs for Clinging, with almost every song sounding like it could be a single. The two songs that were chosen as singles are the best of the lot, each feeling like instant classics. "David"’s cheesy synths, stately beats, and the chamber pop-lovely arrangement mesh perfectly with the breathtaking vocal melody, "Heaven’s on Fire" bursts out of the speakers in a blast of happy keys, peppy guitars, and a beat straight out of Madchester. It’s a dramatic one-two punch that almost serves to overshadow the rest of the record on first listen. Further spins reveal the charms of the non-single tracks, and the whole thing ends up being one of the best examples of all the things that help make Swedish pop so magical. For once, all the pre-release hype and anticipation has been justified; the Radio Dept. have delivered the best work of their career.

Tim Sendra, Allmusic.com