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Yet despite the melancholy mood, We’re On Your Side is far from depressing. Slaraffenland possess a wistfully melodic knack akin to The Beach Boys if they’d never managed to get off the Sloop John B, and there is much to admire in the multi-faceted arrangements.
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MojoSlaraffenland are a complete surprise. Unfettered yet poptuneful, they harmonize constantly--with a melodic cool, more churchy than surfy--but plough those vocal lines into dense, dynamic texture with fierce drums marching as to war. [Jun 2010, p.103]
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It's experimental music, to be sure, but it doesn't conflate experimentation with alienation.
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While it at least confesses that there’s a reason for the band to state it’s on your side—an admission of bad things in the face of a strong insistence that art not harsh anyone’s mellow—the album acts as a sort of side step to those bad things rather than a head-on address. Music this consistently gorgeous deserves a little better.
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There aren’t really any tracks that stand out the way 'I’m a Machine' did on "Sunshine," but there aren’t any weak links here either.
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It will not blow you away and, though well balanced, it's not a 'dipper' in that proceedings are constant and hand-picking the best selections does a disservice to the remainder, which complete a strong but not astounding record.
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It'll doubtless put some smiles on some faces as it goes, but it neither reaches for more nor tries to be anything less. Perhaps it is enough, but does it have to be?
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Even though the tempo rarely climbs above a midtempo churn, there's a definite shape to each track, with the swirling, atmospheric arrangements recalling Sigur Ros. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's hard not to wish that Slaraffenland showed greater focus and ambition.
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Listening to Slaraffenland find their way, as they approach indie-rock from a rarified angle, is enjoyable enough in itself to cancel out any inhibitions.
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Under The RadarSlaraffenland's Beirut-by-way-od-Sonic-Youth atmospherics are considerably more hit than miss--even if vocals occasionally threaten to pull them down. [Fall 2009, p.66]
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All this variety and uncertainty does become a little wearing in places, and the vocals in particular often fail to live up to the music that accompanies them.