Good As Gold

‘Good As Gold’ is a sonically and emotionally layered album, only revealing itself after repeated listens. It was recorded in live takes over just two days, and then assembled over a painstaking twelve month period. As a songwriter, Petter repeatedly roams round various genres, scoping out the boundaries in order to transgress them. ‘In the End of the Day’ sounds like an imaginary sound-off between Mumford & Sons and ‘Smile’-era Brian Wilson. Elsewhere, there are splashes of American sun (‘Backyard’), an Afrobeat bounce (‘Stuck in Between’), and the type of hushed beauty The Band of Horses have recently perfected (‘Before I Do’). Despite all its genre-hopping, ‘Good As Gold’ retains a coherency, and its own identity, through Petter’s insatiable ear for melody. He is also a dark lyrical soul, perhaps best demonstrated on the album’s thematic and stylistic centrepiece, ‘Momentarily Lost’. Powered by a relentless beat and Petter’s gently emotive vocals, ‘Lost’ captures the elegiac intensity that bewitched fans of Arcade Fire, and builds beautifully towards its broodingly baroque crescendo. The lo-fi ‘Last Time’ closes an album that demands you go right back to the beginning, and start again.