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?