The Swedish music scene gets a boost as this duo traverse layers of saucer-eyed synths to deliver a hazy home run.
Swedish nu-gaze duo Maria Lind�n and Fredrick Balck wear their influences – My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, M83 – on their hazy neon sleeves.
As such, Hearts offers walls of sound and muffled, reverbed vocals to create a spectral atmosphere of textured, saucer-eyed wonder.
The pair strive for new ground, making Lind�n’s cathedral-echo vocals on the foreboding Cancer and the traktor-beamed final third of the already spaced-out Wired rewarding listens.
The uplifting Pulse and synth-driven daze of I Kill Your Love, Baby! are worthy despite treading old ground, and show the pair know their onions.
Synths swaddle the lyrics so tightly they’re unfathomable - their personality extends barely beyond a spine-tingling, aloof presence - but Hearts hums with a noir-ish beauty which, at times, is hard to resist.
3 stars
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