I have just received the new Thomas Dybdahl record, SCIENCE, and it is different than nearly everything I have heard recently. Now, I am not saying this is a new genre defying album, or some sort of crazy concept that will blow your mind beyond belief. It is just amazingly ecelectic, and I find it hard to decide what style of music TD plays. I love this album for this reason, and I have only heard it twice (at the time of initial writing... I have listened to it many, many times since this...). Sonically there is a country twang in the guitars and an upbeat feel in all the drum parts, but that is where the similarities in the songs seem to end. Vocals are octave levels apart, some songs end with experimental guitar clutter, keyboards and pianos punctuate the middles of others... Perhaps science is a very aperpo title.
At the time I was listening to this album I was reading Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City and strange heavy metal refernces were punctuating my listening experience. I have now decided that this album has nothing to do with heavy metal. It does however have to do with interesting, complicated music. From the guitar collisions and destructive chaos that appears at the end of track 1, and the constant changes in style, drama and tempo across the rest of the album, Science kept me involved, and guessing as to what would come next.
Amazon.com told me I would like this record, and I certainly did. It was also the first CD that I received from Lala that I was amazingly happy to have received after enjoying so much, meaning it was a $1.75 well spent. This proves that the occasional times when services such as these work out, it pays for all the times they only provide mediocre results—at least to me.