Love Is All
Two Thousand and Ten Injuries
Sweden’s Love is All specialize in itchy, reverb-soaked art-punk that rarely sounds less than massive: even a plaintive cut like “Repetition” blooms into trilling regalia. On their first record, the coyly titled Nine Times That Same Song, the band played about with these sonic elements like a kid with new Legos. Here they’re more careful, building tiny castles with those sax wails and subway-clatter drums, infusing moments of romantic keening (or delicious revenge, as on “Less Than Thrilled”) into the din. Throughout Two Thousand and Ten Injuries, drums patter expectantly and guitar lines jerk back and forth, playing tensely until the next sustained blast of saxophones or howling feedback. These spazzy interludes treat free jazz and noise as a sort of affectation, a squiggly ecstatic exclamation point to affix on the end of what are otherwise the most straight-forward songs this band’s ever produced. Still, it would be nice to see them toss the directions and get back to building whatever Lego monstrosity came to mind, as they once did. The record is a winning release, if not entirely novel, and the sound of a likable band honing their sound while refusing, somewhat obstinately, to alter it.
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