The Nautilus Years Reviews

6/5/2008 at 1:02 PM

Drowned in Sound(UK)
It's an album that has hopefulness etched deep in every note, such is its power. One could argue that it doesn't actually go anywhere – archaeological digs move with greater speed than this – but that's not the point. Nine seconds into opener '21st Century Paradise Traveller' you're convinced you've strayed into a gloriously melodic bridge where there's some epic, shattering chorus around the corner. It can be disconcerting, waiting for the change that never comes, until you realise that every second (more or less) of the album is tinged with a gossamer-light touch that imbues it with the sense that rather than anticipating the drop, sitting back and bathing in its glow would be a much better way to enjoy it. 'The Nautilus Years' is a work of such understated, almost casual beauty that it would be a crime for it to go unnoticed. It's about as far from the zeitgeist without being purposely contrary and wears its massive heart on its sleeve. (9/10) (DISCOVER ALBUM OF THE MONTH)

RockSound Magazine(UK)
Some hearty souls have never lost that big-dreaming sensibility. Take Sweden's Marten Rydell; Surrounded is his baby- it's his imaginatively evocative lyrics, kitchen-sink-embracing tunesmanship and heart-swallowing vocals that dominate proceedings-and what a rightly proud father he must be. '21st Century Paradise Traveller' is a mammothly technicolor first strike, while the string-driven soar of 'Paper Tangerine Crush' is both surreal and yet astoundingly stirring, and although there are flashes of joyous liberation('The Oceanographer' or 'Fellow Citizen Stars') they give way to an abiding hurt that renders 'The Nautilus Years' a moving and ultimately all-consuming experience. (9/10)

The Star/Independent News and Media(SA)
If Sparklehorse were to do team-building exercises with Mercury Rev at a mountain retreat, with The Flaming Lips as guest speakers and Sigur Ros as resident spiritual gurus, chances are Surrounded would be the entertainment at the fireside jamboree. The mood is ambivalent and vacillating; ebullient with an underlying melancholy and Surrounded's epics are saved by actual songs beneath the dense atmospherics. The album should, by all dictates of logic, get boring, but it doesn't. 'Paper Tangerine Crush' manages to sound both unassuming and steeped in high drama and it would be curmudgeonly to relegate 'The Nautilus Years' to dinner-party background music as the album does contain frequent moments of great beauty. The surreal lyrics occasionally lapse into absurdity, but are earnest elegies to the redemptive power of nature and the transience of the human experience. (4/5)

The Guardian(UK)
Actually they're a rare hybrid of shoegazing and Americana, like alt-country from outer space, with twangy vocals and often acoustic melodies smothered by cosmic static and alien ambience. Sparklehorse and Grandaddy have ventured this way before while arch early-'90s shoegazers Slowdive actually transmogrified from a noisepop outfit into a new country act called Mojave 3 so it's not exactly virgin territory, but it is a field worth ploughing. (BAND OF THE DAY)

Q Magazine(UK)
If Brooklyn's MGMT borrow Flaming Lips' LSD-laced sense of humour, Sweden's Surrounded channel the more dreamy, beatific end of Wayne Coyne and co's output. In other words, they're more 'Do You Realize?' than 'She Don't Use Jelly'. There's an intriguing undercurrent of rustic Americana lurking beneath the echo-pedal atmospherics. (TRACK OF THE DAY)

NME(UK)
Now they're back and have melodically submerged in a percussive diving bell somewhere off the rugged coastline of the Baltic Sea. Influenced by The Flaming Lips, Sigur Rós and Sparklehorse, these Nordic shoegazers have their heads solely in the stars. (7/10)

Clash Magazine(UK)
My iTunes has labeled this second album 'pop'. It's not. If you want to know what this sounds like, then it isn't a million miles away from Mercury Rev's 'Deserter's Songs' - that kind of effortless mix of sound, rising and falling as it grips you with its strong reassuring hand and pulls you along like a funky uncle taking you shopping in Camden market. (unrated)

The Music Magazine(UK)
Though this is not a significant alteration in sound, it is a distinct change in approach. Surrounded not only depict their talent, but they do so with an effortless grace which would be befitting of any great band in years gone by. A poignant combination of the devastating bitter and the beautiful sweet. (8/10)

Heaven or Las Vegas(UK)
Swedish indie rockers Surrounded already look set to be one of the HOLV acts of 2008. With strong nods towards alt-rock kings The Flaming Lips and at points an uncanny similarity to Vampire On Titus era Guided By Voices, there is more than enough for a seasoned or casual listener.Cracking, artistically intriguing stuff. (8/10)

Organ Magazine(UK)
Glowing euphoria and fuzzy utopia and far far more than just "Sweden's answer to The Flaming Lips". Marten Rydell's vocal delivery is right up there with the very very best – Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse or Remy Zero's Cinjun Tate - Beautiful details and quietly ambitious intent, words that colour everything. Mournful gentle whispered melodies, orchestral highlights. So much depth.(ALBUM OF THE WEEK)

Subba-Cultcha(UK)
Equally reminiscent of Deus and Sigur Ros, Surrounded have carved themselves a niche in a world between light and shade - and are ready to ensconce themselves within to hold court. It's a big, angry, melancholy sound that too manages to be tender and intimate. (4/5)

Snaz Music(UK)
Part of the beauty of this release is trying to fathom where it fits in currently, and who cares? Music this epic is timeless and furrows its own brow. (4/5)

This is Fake DIY(UK)
For us, it's the tracks that don't attempt to be too obscure that are the most successful; 'The Oceanographer' is a thing of shimmering, simple beauty, about taking a trip to escape from the world and its woes - and just occasionally it's possible to feel like you're a little lost at sea on Surrounded's epic adventure. (3.5/5)

Channel 4(UK)
Fuzzily lush Swedish band Surrounded steal Sparklehorse's sonic crown with their Flaming Lips-esque beauty of an album. Yearning and melancholic, 'The Nautilus Years' makes misery sound a gloriously appealing thing. (7/10)

AU Magazine(UK)
Surrounded have created somehing that is simultaneously epic and intimate, evoking both Disintegration-era The Cure and Mercury Rev. (6/10)

The Citizen(SA)
Each track is a soundscape that requires exploring, making listening to the whole album at once relatively heavy, but only the song titles suggest that whatever the band is using to get them through the long northern nights is powerful stuff. (3/5)

People Magazine(SA)
Dripping with the sounds of ingenuity, 'The Nautilus Years' would fit the perfect soundtrack for a spatially motivated road trip to another galaxy. (3/5)

The List(UK)
Aching melodies and lush interludes enveloping tracks. (3/5)

Crud Magazine(UK)
Philosophical, unearthly and vibrating with all kinds of cosmic energies. A delicate bee-like buzz of pretty melodies so affectionally weaved. (3/5)

Leeds Guide(UK)
Clearly influenced both by fellow Scandinavians Sigur Rós and American indie acts like Elliott Smith, this is an album made of pleasant noises and nicely executed fuzzy, ethereal post-rock. (3/5)

New-Noise(UK)
The second album blues or the sophomore jinx seems to trip a lot of bands up. Not so Surrounded who with this newest offering have taken everything that made their first album great and made them better. (unrated)

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