Oslo - Oslo (CD)

All Music Guide

As everyone who listened to pop music in the 1980s and 1990s knows, the line between engagingly moody and offputtingly mopey can be treacherously thin. But great bands (the Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Pink Floyd) have demonstrated that it's possible to negotiate that thin line brilliantly, and danged if these Los Angeles upstarts haven't proved, with this debut album, that it can still be done and by firsttimers, no less. Oslo's eponymous album opens strongly with the onetwo punch of "The Stranger" and "My Soul", the latter a brilliant slab of 1980s Britpop that strongly evokes the middleperiod Cure. On "Minute Gun" they threaten to slide off into shoegazer bathos, but then catch themselves with "All Terrain", a song that is no less gloomy but significantly more melodically arresting. Oslo pays tribute to Massive Attack on the dark and desultory "Systematic" after dramatically ramping things up to nearly mid tempo on "Starlight". Soft without being sweet and intense without being loud,... this is an impressive debut from a very young band that will be impossible to ignore if it continues refining its sound. - Rick Anderson, All Music Guide Read more Less