Envelopes: Here Comes The Wind

Can you remember the second you fell in love with somebody? For us, it was at precisely the 1:53 mark of "Here Comes The Wind" when we joined our hearts with those of Envelopes.

Whilst many will describe in detail what led to their love, we will leave it as a mystery, lost to the winds of time. At least until you hear the album anyway. For their second album, for the Franco-Swedish alliance have gone all out. At times sounding like Albert Hammond Jr. joined the Pixies at other times sounding like Mew have become spliced with Stereo Total.

A hundred escaped mental patients are on the run, flailing helplessly, perfectly aware of where they are heading, but so unpredictable in their behaviour that it seems illogical and random to the helicopter pilot aiding in their retrieval. Moments later every one of them drops to the ground, the pilot stares in amazement as he realises that they have spelt the words "Cellar Door" across the moors that were host to their escape. This is the level of impact from the multitudes of seemingly unrelated musical strands that run through Envelopes work when they reveal their true intention.

"Smoke in the Desert" sees lead male vocalist Henrik Orrling doing his very best Rapture impression while somebody winds a Plutonium-cored mechanised hummingbird in the background. "Freejazz" sees the majority of the vocals chewed up and spat out backwards whereas "Put On Hold" sounds either like a group of toddlers left to play in the back room of a German techno rave or just as easily, like listening to Architecture in Helsinki whilst a M1 Abrams tank drives past your window.

"Boat" meanwhile is the score to the lost and lonely at sea. The cheap guitar (right down to the one note that won't fret properly) duels with the isolation until a piercing wall of noise capsizes the vessel, sending it's occupant down to the depths of a top secret Atlantis-based military installation.

Barely scraping the 100 second mark, there is no reason why "I'm In Love And I Don't Care Who Knows It" could not of been cast into a vacuum, with it's uninspired and repetitive melody it stands out like a "Are You Smarter than a Ten Year Old/5th Grader" contestant at a MENSA convention, and we don't mean one of the brighter participants, we mean the girl who thought that Europe was a country.

Be in no doubt, "Here Comes The Wind" will invade your mind, lay waste to your synapses and paint the cranium in buoyant yellow and green spots. (no offence intended to migraine sufferers and epileptics) Our heartfelt affection was forever cemented upon the conclusion of "What's the Deal?" when lead female vocalist Audrey Pic emerges with a line of such ridiculously powerful high-pitched melody that it resulted in one of the first Matrix-esque "whoa" moments we've had since Jonas Bjerre nailed the bridge to "She Came Home for Christmas".