Mando Diao - Hurricane Bar - Album Review

03 March 2005

Mando Diao
Hurricane Bar
(Majesty)
Release Date: 7 March 2005

Mando Diao return with the stunning UK debut album Hurricane Bar, a record full of melodic gems, infectious tunes and unashamedly anthemic choruses. Current single You Can’t Steal My Love is just one of the highlights of this impressive collection of tracks, and features here in a longer version, with a piano and vocals interlude in a curiously jazzy style, before the chorus reprise and the

grand finale. Opener Cut The Rope gives us a taste of the album’s many themes: love, disillusion, and all the rage of five angry young men. It’s also quite a peculiar thing to see Gustaf Noren and Bjorn Dixgard taking their turn at being lead singers, and in God Knows giving their own personal flavour to the two halves of the track. Down In The Past is another remarkable number, whose lyrics “Honey you just left me for a new one…it doesn’t matter baby ‘cause you hair is ugly, too” reveal unexpected irony on a bitter thing like being left by one’s lover. Taking its musical heritage from bands such as The Strokes and The Libertines, Hurricane Bar has The Beatles, Van Morrison and Iggy Pop stirred into it, and if you add some classic country and a bit of Americana, you’ll realize Mando Diao have been cooking a dish with various flavours, but whose main taste is still good old rock and roll.

http://www.mando-diao.com

Giada Arnone