The Lost Patrol - Songs About Running Away (CD)

All Music Guide

The Lost Patrol is a huge departure for Dennis Lyxsén, the group's principal songwriter and vocalist. He was in the powerful Swedish hardcore group Refused in the early '90s and is currently the frontman for the agitpunk International Noise Conspiracy. With the band's second album, Songs About Running Away (which is superior in all respects to 1999's Songs in the Key of Resistance), he has made an abrupt turn to laidback classic rock singer/songwriter territory. The sound of the record is organic and lush, filled with jazzbased basslines, fluttering flutes, chiming pianos, lightly brushed drums, and Lyxsén's honest and direct vocals. Often reminiscent of Astral Weeksera Van Morrison (on the rollicking "Out of Date" and "The Last Goodbye"), countryrock ("Left and Leaving Blues"), and introspective '70s singer/songwriters ("Same Heart That Will Tear Me Apart," the aching "Desperate Attempts"), the record is firmly based in the prepunk past. (The only song that sounds even a little modern... is the light and breezy "Alright," which is reminiscent of the mighty Saturday Looks Good to Me with its shared male/female vocals, Northern soul song structure, and horn section.) Songs About Running Away isn't a million miles away from a Wallflowers or Counting Crows record, except that it has sonic imagination and a lowkey intimacy that those bands lack. It also has a real feel, like it comes from the heart and not the back pocket of a radio programmer. Fans of Lyxsén's previous bands will most likely find this record a big letdown, but anyone who likes honest, bighearted, and openminded classic rock and balladry will find much to admire here. - Tim Sendra, All Music Guide Read more Less