The Amazing
Picture You
PARTISAN
6/10
The Amazing has nearly perfected its native Swedish value of lagom (“just enough”) through its third, dozy album, Picture You. The LP cruises serenely, leaving one feeling as if they were floating over a glistening lake with fingers softly pressed into the water. The nine-minute title track sits somewhere between a pastoral folk song and an ’80s power number—only two chords, continuously coiling around into a hook with hushed vocal sighs. “Safe Island” comes with enough delicate analogue distortion and minor-seventh clenches to create a soft knot pulled taught in the listener’s heart. Reine Fiske’s (Dungen) epic guitar work might be the only aspect of the album that doesn’t follow The Amazing’s somewhat admirable level of calm. Through its ten tracks, Picture You sits in musical limbo, not fully committing to a genre beyond the hour-long album’s earnest, yet pale hue of psychedelia. The album is perfectly satisfying, though, for sure, we could handle more depth.
