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The Blue Van
The Art of Rolling
TVT Records/Shock

 

Rating: 51%

The Blue Van are so retro it hurts: every riff on The Art of Rolling is one drawn straight from the musical hotbed of the 1960s. But it ain’t necessarily a bad thing.

Rougher than fellow Danes the Raveonettes but less interested in crafting brilliant songs, the Blue Van use vintage keyboard as their weapon of choice, with the swirling line on “I Remember the Days” particularly effective. The vocal mannerisms of Steffan Westmark are full of nuance throughout.

But it all comes back to the talents of the fantastically named Søren V. Christensen, who contributes Hammond organ, Wurlitzer, Vox organ, Melltron, and the occasional touch of backing vocal (not to mention slide guitar) on The Art of Rolling.

Some of the guitar riffs from Westmark are just so, well, stolen from his heroes that it makes The Art of Rolling a naggingly familiar listen. It’s perfectly fine, but why do we need a band who rip off the Kinks and the Who so religiously when we’ve got the original artefact?


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