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Reviews

Ex Norwegian — Sooo Extra
(Bandcamp Think Like a Key, 2023, CD / LP / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2024-08-28

Sooo Extra Cover art

Sooo Extra is the fourteenth album from indie psych popsters Ex Norwegian. Serving up eleven songs over the span of 33 minutes, Ex Norwegian takes you a sonic journey into their quirky pop-psych world. There is a certain sameness that runs across the album with a few tasty Mellotron bits peaking above the mix finally playing a major role on the closing song, “It’s Always Been There.” Starting out as a full band, Ex Norwegian is now the solo effort of founder Roger Houdaille, which accounts for the minimal variation from song to song. Roger has put a lot of his heart and soul into this album for a full band sound, but the results just do not work for me this time around. By and large the songs are bright and cheerful with some quirky twists that might appeal to the college radio / indie rock crowd. Songs that piqued my interest a bit are “Improbably Probable,” “Atlantic Columbia,” and “Scalers Blues.” I did find the song “Send Nudes” to be quite an odd subject for a song and song title. Where did this come from, especially in the context of the rest of the album? Overall I do prefer the Ex Nowegian albums where Roger is interacting with other musicians.

Filed under: New releases, 2023 releases

Related artist(s): Ex Norwegian

More info
http://exnorwegian.bandcamp.com/album/sooo-extra

 

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