The Radio Dept. – Running Out Of Love

Swedish dream pop band The Radio Dept’s fourth album Running Out Of Love sees the band looking to make up for lost time. After a six-year absence enforced by a legal battle with their publisher, they return frustrated with the state of Swedish life, abandoning their sunny disposition to create a dystopian record dabbling in moody electronica and R'n'B. 

Running Out Of Love’s direction isn’t apparent at first, with deceptive opening track Slobada Naru based around upbeat timpani taps and chiming guitars. Once Swedish Guns arrives with its urgent strings and gunshots, however, it’s clear that the record is of a more pessimistic character than 2010’s Clinging to A Scheme, with Johan Duncanson’s customarily uniform vocals lamenting Sweden’s arms industry, selective police brutality, and their long-running court case.

With so many axes to grind, Running Out Of Love becomes a riveting and richly European record, hinting at Kraftwerk’s icy Computer Love synths on We Got Game, Idioteque’s IDM beat on the haunting seven-minute centrepiece Occupied, and Massive Attack on the looping bass of Committed to the Cause. Even songs that feel more familiar, such as the bouncy Bound to Happen or the drippy adult contemporary of Can’t Be Guilty, are tinged with an unusual resignation. Angry, acquiescent and apathetic all at once, Running Out Of Love is an ideal album for our anxious times.

Listen to: Swedish Guns, We Got Game