The Kissaway Trail is from Fagerlund, Sweden. The band consists of Thomas Fagerlund (song-writing, vocals and guitar), Soren B. Corneliussen (song-writing, vocals and guitar), Rune Pedersen (bass and backing vocals), Daniel Skjoldmose (guitars, keyboards and backing vocals), and Hase Mydtskov (drums and backing vocals). SLEEP MOUNTAIN is the band’s follow-up to its highly acclaimed first album released in 2007. The overall theme of SLEEP MOUNTAIN, says Thomas, is “about being a dreamer and sticking to your dreams regardless of the efforts of people trying to wake us up… SLEEP MOUNTAIN symbolises staying true to your opinions and beliefs.”

Soren pinpoints his predilection for, “grief, loss and love, but written from a bystander’s point of view… My new lyrics are about sentiments and pictures in my mind that seem to linger on indefinitely. They’re more of a collage than a story, but they’re still thoughts and images from real life.”

The 12 songs on SLEEP MOUNTAIN came together at the second attempt. They started writing and recording early in 2008; “the only rule was to write as many songs as possible.” Thus armed, they rehearsed in a desolate rented farm close to their home in Odense before moving to the French mountains to narrow down their material. In late 2008, they began recording in Sweden and Denmark but two months later, “we discovered it did not sound the way we had intended, and we were afraid it never would!” So they started again from scratch back in Odense where they’d recorded the first album. They had just two weeks to complete it, “but as we laid down the first drum track, we knew we had made the right decision.” Likewise, hiring American producer Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, The Twilight Sad). He couldn’t work with them at the first attempt but he was free for the Odense sessions. “We told him we simply could not imagine our record being the way we wanted it without him on board. Fortunately, he accepted.”

Kissaway seem to have broken away from the typically ‘sweet’ Scandinavian sound with this album and in so doing has produced a potential album of the year. Opener ‘SDP’ is a rock-pop blast of a song that is one of the most complete musical packages I have ever heard from a band. There’s a monster melody, good lyrics, hook-line-sinker choruses, and wonderful performances. It really doesn’t get much better than this! ‘Painter’ mixes acoustic and electronic sounds beautifully, while sounding very Flaming Lips. It’s downbeat, darker and thoughtful. ‘New Year’ introduces a dominant military snare drum rhythm and the swirling ambience of an Arcade Fire record. ‘Don’t Wake Up’ repeats the trick, although the snare is replaced by a deeper bass vibe and there’s a distinctly dreamy soundscape. ‘Friendly Fire’ opens with a lengthy cinematic instrumental intro before clattering drums make an entry along with multi-layered vocals. The song’s ambience is also dream-like as it flows smoothly along like a mountain stream. The band’s cover of Neil Young’s much overlooked masterpiece ‘Philadelphia’ is different and stunning. ‘New Lipstick’ is a beats-driven rocker.

The epic ‘Three Million Hours’ also takes pride of place on the record with its more assertive rock ambience thanks to another powerful drum rhythm. The Kissaway Trail have stepped up several gears with this record in terms of sonic diversity and adventure. Strongly recommended.

4/5