DESCRIPTION:
On its fourth album, "Ambulance", The Amazing has a way of unspooling melodies that don't grab you so much as slowly burrow under your skin. Playing with an unhurried improvisational spirit, the Swedish band lets ideas amble along and develop naturally; it takes time to explore the nooks of its songs in search of deeper resolution. That lovely, resonant quality conjures a meditative mindset suitable for solitary walks or the melancholic stillness of an early morning. Yet all the haze shrouds everything in mystery, and it appears that Christoffer Gunrup wants it that way.

As The Amazing's enigmatic singer and songwriter (as well as one of its three guitarists), Gunrup submerges his muted croon just below the surface of the mix, singing so that his phrasing is practically imperceptible and his themes are equally tricky to parse. Gunrup makes a point to refrain from discussing his songs much or making lyrics available in liner notes online — the quirk of a guarded artist who insists the art speak for itself.

While mostly striking a somber tone, "Blair Drager" does provide a change of pace in the form of smoky lounge-jazz and cosmopolitan trip-hop. Built around in-the-pocket break beats, slinky guitar upstrokes and sinister speak-singing, it's yet another satisfying color in the band's palette. The Amazing implies its heartbreak and haunted regret without explicitly defining it, and "Ambulance" succeeds by inviting listeners to interpret the meaning for themselves.


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[I do not own any of the copyrights. This is here only for promotional purposes.]