Top 25 Albums Of The Decade (#18)

18) DUNGEN – Ta Det Lugnt (2004)

I have a theory that, in mid-to-late 2003, a major temporal shift occurred that sent music thirty years back in time. This went pretty much unnoticed in America, where the throwback was taking a more mainstream route: the White Stripes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Decemberists. In other words, irony was in, and whether you were ripping off The Velvet Underground or Patti Smith or The Pogues, there was always a feeling of displacement—that this was somehow “the music of our generation” even though it wasn’t much more than tweaking sounds that had already been discovered (and I like those bands). Meanwhile, in other parts of the world—in Japan, in Germany, in Sweden—there was no need for this winking sense of entitlement. And although I’m pretty sure that no one was doing anything as heavy as Colour Haze back in ‘73, all three of these albums (#18-20) could probably be thrown onto a playlist alongside vintage psychedelic obscurites and no one at the party would notice. Dungen, however, seem to feel the most at ease with their sound, refusing to wear their influences on their sleeves—“Listen to this song that sounds just like Captain Beyond!*”—or impress us with their playing ability. Nor are they afraid to get everybody grooving. Just check out “Du E För Fin För Mig,” which moves from a schmaltzy Viking-metal-type verse/chorus harmonies, to a “Give Peace A Chance” acoustic guitar stomp, to the same rhythmic frenzy as the Stone Roses’ “I Am The Resurrection.” Simply put: no clutter, no pretension, no ironic posing. Some believe that the Scandinavian black metal scene exploded in the early nineties because the kids didn’t realize that Venom were joking. Similarly, Ta Det Lugnt was in all likelihood made by people who thought that Eric Burdon really took acid in the 60s, or that Mick Jagger actually practiced Satanism. Anyway, five umlauts out of five.

*It does.