"Let’s Away" : New light, drifting and beautifully twisted album from Danish / Swedish Lampshade.
'Let’s Away' – The second album from Lampshade – came to being under rather unique circumstances. The band Lampshade stradles a couple different borders both by way of nationality and by style of music. Band members come from Denmark and Sweden, there's men and women, there's a mix of pop and arty pop.
The largest part of the songs on the album are written by the charismatic lead singer Rebekkamaria, and the sound of the album was born in the crossing of the band being partial to grandiose Nordic sound, singer/songwriter music and Swedish pop music – an inspiration the two new guitarists carry with them from their native country. In this way the music stretch from light and obliging melodies to rhythmically founded pop songs and grandiose beautifully noisy explosions of sound. The title of the album is inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and reflects the narrative in the lyrical universe that involves English, Danish and Swedish.
One of the guest-acts on the album is the American singer/songwriter Damien Jurado, who has released a great number of albums on SUB POP and Secretly Canadian. The album is recorded at Lydkraft Studiet in Denmark and mastered by John Golden (Sonic Youth etc.) in California.
It's got some of the nordic sound we've come to expect from artists like Bjork or The Sundays and some of the pop of Sweden. It's a grand combination. Add to that the fact that the new record, Let's Away.

北欧是偏远的，却是浮想联翩的地方。尤其是冬天，很容易自觉的想起那里，极圈外的阳光明亮又清晰，还意外的带着点暖暖的香味，穿厚厚的毛领外套，裹着厚厚的帽子围巾，就连鞋都是厚厚的，踩在乾硬的灰色水泥地上，不由的感觉到一种力度的存在。
这样散步是有格调的，总觉得需要点音乐陪衬才够完美，所以我偶然结识了Lampshade。这是支由丹麦人和瑞典人一起组成的乐队，主唱叫Rebekkamaria，是我最喜欢的那种有特色的女声主唱，不过Lampshade俘虏我的地方，也是最可贵的是它不像以前听的那种清新的瑞典音乐那么甜腻感伤，它不安分，充满节奏感，很新颖，令人严重好奇。
Lampshade在正式发行专辑前已经出过单曲EP，令他们成名的正是2001年的EP专辑Adorable Void，他们的专辑：2003年的Because Trees Can Fly和2006年的Let's Away都由Glitterhouse Records发行。尽管说我更喜欢03年那张Because Trees Can Fly的封面，我还是更欣赏06年新专辑Let’s Away的音乐，尽管Because Trees Can Fly已经足够优秀。像我上面说的一样，Let’s Away是适合在路上听的，可能因为它本身就是乐队在不断行进，不断旅行的过程里创作出来的，带着公路生活的苍凉浪漫和旅途中人的孤独。经过三年蛰伏，Lampshade的Let’s Away成熟了许多，感觉比Because Trees Can Fly更容易让人接受，值得一提，专辑中的歌不但有英语，还有瑞典语和丹麦语，不同的语言Rebekkamaria演绎的感觉也不同，英语的歌像Come Closer，New Legs，Joy，We'll Be Fine就同Indie感觉比较接近，而Disse Fugle，Fjaeril则偏向于北欧另类音乐，我自己比较喜欢的有Come Closer，New Legs，In The Woods，Fjariel，Feather Of Lead，Disse Fugle等。
不过有点可惜Lampshade不是那种令人浮想联翩的音乐，Lampshade做的太完美，太疏离，不容易勾动人的情感，甚至觉得有距离感。但我觉得Lampshade属于深冬时节，或许是音符中流淌的寒气而不是音乐本身令人冷了起