The Legends
Up Against The Legends

(Lakeshore)

First Appeared in The Music Box, November 2004, Volume 11, #11

Written by John Metzger

There’s simply no other way to put it: For fans of The Smiths, The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and pre-Oasis Brit-pop, The Legends’ debut Up Against The Legends is a tightly-knit, 30-minute blast of utter bliss. Setting its engaging melodies within the colossal maelstrom of a Phil Spector-ish Wall of Sound, the Swedish ensemble adorns its shimmering garage-pop songs with a myriad of colors and textures, pitting its distorted vocals, hazy harmonies, and chiming guitars against a backdrop of hand claps, tambourine taps, cymbal crashes, keyboard pulses, and bass runs. Among the album’s 12 tracks, not a single tune falls flat, and each effortlessly assumes its own breezily infectious, retro-infused posture. That something so decidedly anchored within the past succeeds as well as it does is a surefire testament to The Legends’ ability to not only emulate its heroes, but also to capture their essence, and the group’s well-constructed songs avoid sounding as pretentious as its moniker otherwise would imply. From the head-bopping beat of Nothing To Be Done to the sunny, summery refrains of Call It Ours to the airy, Belle & Sebastian-hued lilt of When the Day Is Done, Up Against The Legends is a delightfully intoxicating collection that, in this age of over-bloated albums, leaves the listener begging and pleading for more.

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Ratings

1 Star:   Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2004 The Music Box