love is all

Sweden is the new Canada (which just a few years ago became the new U.K.), churning out dozens of upstart indie-rock groups that have music bloggers buzzing. Case in point: Love is All, a five-piece band hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, released their debut album Nine Times that Same Song stateside two years ago to much critical acclaim. The work consisted of pop that had just enough raucousness to please the punks and enough rhythmic, driven guitar-rock to please clubgoers.

The band's sophomore album, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night, doesn't stray far from this mold, with 11 new tracks that blow by in a mere 32 minutes. Inbuing relentless energy, lead singer Josephine Olausson's frenetic vocal stylings impressively keep up with the momentum of the album's frantic pace.

The lead track is titled "New Beginnings," but just the opposite may be true: Love is All is picking up exactly where they left off. Thankfully, their formula is fresh enough to avoid banality, musically speaking. The end result is jubilant music that sounds effortless and fun.

Though A Hundred Things lacks a single with the infectious charm of "Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up," it gains ground with superb production, replete with the intimate sounds of warm, popping vinyl. "When Giants Fall" manages to sound epic and immediate at once, reminiscent of both the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Lyrically, the band continues to match upbeat instrumentation with dour lyrics. "A More Uncertain Future" plays as a fight between two fraught lovers, as Olausson laments, "I've had enough of fantasy/We don't need each other anymore." The rest of the album deals similarly with themes of angst and impatience.

Fortunately, the adult songwriting does little to dampen the album's spirit. Yes, several Love is All members have gotten married and had kids since Nine Times, but A Hundred Things reveals they haven't grown up too much, and that their attention spans are still delightfully short.