FIREFOX AK IF I WERE A MELODY ALBUM RAZZIA RELEASE: FEBRUARY 27, 2008 REVIEW: FEBRUARY 27, 2008

Sweden's Firefox AK present their second album for public scrutiny. They have followed up the debut release of 2006’s “Madame, Madame!” with the almost cryptically titled “If I Were a Melody”.

The rather sweet vocals are provided by Andrea Kellerman (now a Berlin resident), with the music itself being a kind of tagteam pairing of Kellerman with Viktor Ginner. The music is a tasty blend; being in parts a tad glitchy, slightly electro, with the strongest hint being of pop. Even cooler is how these parts are put together in the mix though. The most intriguing thing takes place once you've listened to a couple of the tracks – at first it is difficult to describe, but then gradually more and more it becomes apparent. These tracks seem very much based around the theory of giving everything space. “The Flutter of a Wing” shows this theory off to good effect, nothing is too cluttered, nothing is fighting for air, everything has its place in a sparse, yet clean and crisp production.

“Techno Tears” gets the pulse racing, again thanks to great choice of sounds, nice vocals and clean production. There are no really amazing ideas here, no lyrical masterpieces, but what works is the quality given to the presentation of those ideas. My favourite example is “The River”, the build up is sublime – everything starts off quite glitchy, it sounds like it is going to continue into a quite electronic direction, yet swathes of guitar turn it down a much more dreamily atmospheric, dare I say even pleasantly folky direction. A track that just calls out to be put onto repeat while you sit around daydreaming, even when the more uptempo rhythms kick in.

“Shero” is quite simply a beautiful track. It could never be a pop song, well, perhaps in a Björkesque way. This is not due to the vocals though, which are quite straight down the lane, but the insistent rhythm and eerie backing; a melancholy treat. There are no really poor tracks to speak of, only those that don't quite hit the spot, rare indeed for that tricky follow up album.

There is something quite refreshing about this album; it is positive, interesting and cool in equal parts. This is the kind of album that will slowly gnaw away at you until it firmly nuzzles its way into your heart and your mind – a slow burner, but one likely to have held its charm come years end.

MIKE WHYTE