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Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
PAST TOP 10s
THE CONSUMMATE TOP TEN

Surrounded

By Alex Green

Filled with crushing crescendos, sweeping choruses and dense, hard-earned melodies, Surrounded's The Nautilus Years is an exercise in sonic intensity. With compositions ranging from the luxurious instrumentation of "21st Century Paradise Traveler" to the catchy shuffle of "Fellow Citizen Stars," the eleven-track collection is one of the most beautiful and saturnine albums of the year.  "Safe Tomorrow Sun" brings to mind Mighty Joe Moon-era Grant Lee Buffalo, while the spare and stirring "Short Red Blinks" demonstrates the band's vast and impressive musical range. Formed in their native Sweden in 2000, Surrounded's first album Safety In Numbers (2003) served notice that this Pink Floyd-influenced four piece were capable of not only writing lush, atmospheric compositions, but also imbuing those compositions with dark and dazzling elements. The Nautilus Years is not only a worthy successor, it stakes out new terrain and traverses it with a breezy, yet muscular confidence. Stacked with brooding rhythms that weave in and out of coats of feedback and fuzz, it's a moody, but always harmonically inviting collection. On the eve of the release of his band's sophomore album, Surrounded frontman Mårten Rydell gives the Carousel his top ten albums of all time.

Mårten Rydell: TOP TEN ALBUMS OF ALL TIME
1. Built to Spill--Perfect From Now On
2. Pink Floyd--Meddle
3. Neil Young--After The Goldrush
4. Pink Floyd--Wish You Were Here
5. Nick Drake--Five Leaves Left
6. Built to Spill--Keep It Like A Secret
7. Maria McKee--Life Is Sweet
8. The Flaming Lips--The Soft Bulletin
9. Mark Eitzel--West
10. Elliott Smith--Either/Or

The Nautilus Years is out now on One Little Indian Records


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