Danish five-piece band The Kissaway Trail are one of the more interesting, diverse and refreshing bands I have seen in quite a while, and I will tell you for why. They embrace the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, and play with their hearts, not their minds, on stage. However, on record they capture a totally different mood, that of control and a dreamy elegance. In short they have delivered a really powerful, engrossing piece of work and are an enthralling live experience - but both in completely different ways. You just feel like they get on stage and say, ‘These are our songs and we are going to have some fun with them. But if you want to listen to us in our purest form, go home and put the record on. Tonight though, we rock!’ Few young bands are brave enough or good enough to do this today.

What you notice from this album right from the off is that they have treated it as an album; as a collection of songs to be listened to together in a certain order and enjoyed as a collective. It moves along quite rapidly in the best possible way, thanks largely to short songs and a well thought out running order. One huge advantage they have, which gives them a more durable edge, is that they have two really good and distinctive vocalists who compliment each other. This gives the band the ability to stretch their sound to uncharted territories.

Now I hate to compare bands, but there are some real, young Grandaddy type songs on this record, especially with the similarity in vocal style. It seems that they have used what they know works, given it a more youthful edge (with a little more pop), but not at the expense of the spirit and soul of the record. It is also easy to throw the Flaming Lips into the comparison pot, but I think that is a vocal similarity rather than a musical thing.

Onto the record then, and we open with what is really a big intro and a big ‘hello.’ The opening line, “Hey, if you’re listening you’ll hear”, is the band throwing down the gauntlet to listeners. There are a couple of big ‘la la’ finishes to songs, including the first two, which sounds like a paucity of ideas on how to finish the songs (on record) but this is a minor quibble. Next up is current single ‘Smother+Evil=Hurt’, a great song that provides a nice summary for the rest of the album. It starts with a grand opening of strings and pianos, and then gives way to guitars and vocals returning eventually to the big chorus which echoes the opening lines. It is very dramatic and with the line, “We are history ’cause history made us”, you get the impression they are more than aware of how they have been influenced and would rather embrace this rather than pretend to be something they are not.

Next up is ‘Tracy’, which starts the call to arms theme by delivering, with real intent, “They’ll say we are dancing but we aren’t”, followed with an almost apologetic “You revolt”. Very interesting, very direct, and very unexpected. Then comes one of the simplest, most affecting album tracks with the best tune and most fragile delivery, ‘It’s Close Up Far Away’. Back to the la’s, although they can be forgiven as the song is entitled the ‘La La Song.’ It’s at this stage I realised that the songs are really short, direct and instantly memorable. In fact I really look forward to seeing them again live so I can sing along. ‘Soul Assassins’ is next with its desperately optimistic opening line of “I’m looking forward to waking up, someday waking up and it all just feels right”. You just know that from the opening plucked guitar accompaniment to the line that this is going to turn out to be a big song, and it does not disappoint with some of the heaviest riffs on the record. The lyrics reflect a feeling of helplessness and loss of control to forces feared, but finishes with the same hope that just peeks through in the opening line.

On ‘61’, the band sounds united and powerful with the combined holler of “We can, we’re strong, we’ll beat it”, but they still, in their collective call to arms, sound a little vulnerable. This followed by the upbeat (and one more reminiscent of a live show performance), ‘Sometimes I’m Always Black’, which is led along largely with drawn-out vocals pushing the top of the vocal range, but with no clear chorus or structure to give you something to think about - well they couldn’t make to easy could they? The songs become very much less immediate as you edge towards the end, but by this time so you just want to give the final 3 songs the time they deserve, and you find that they are just as alluring as the bigger songs that brought you this far. The final line in ‘In Disguise’ states simply that “Their souls have left this world”, a truly heartfelt end to a song that reflects the ache of child abuse and suffering in this broken world, but by focusing on the culprit rather than the victim it spins into something more hopeful. Then ‘Bleeding Hearts’ that finishes the album in the same way it began; with lengthy instrumentals, this time to take you to one final statement, “When it all comes down to it, it’s the same that we fear.” But despite this feeling that we all know of hopelessness, you still feel that at least they understand and you are not alone, and hey, you can just go back to track one and pick yourself up again.

This is clearly a very thoughtful and sincere rock record, which pulls ideas from the better ones of the past 10 years and injects just enough energy, and some of that pop perfection that only the Scandinavians have ever been able to truly master. This song collection confronts the reality of a turbulent and troubled world, but ultimately, it is an album of hope.

4/5