The Radio Dept. has been dependably releasing solid Swedish pop-rock for almost a decade now, and Clinging To A Scheme was the sound of a talented band honing its sound with effortless confidence.
That breeziness carries over onto their latest EP, Never Follow Suit, anchored by the reggae-inspired titular song. Often, these types of releases are simply an excuse for a band to pick up scraps from the cutting-room floor and package them into something worth buying. Happily, this EP is more thematically coherent than that; there’s a distinct nod towards hip-hop and dubstep here. The Radio Dept. play with beats much like Peter Bjorn and John did on their 2009 album Living Thing, but whereas the latter largely abandoned their tight melodies in favor of more abstract sounds, Johan Duncanson and company are just as harmonic as ever.
Opening track “The One” begins with a near-exact imitation of Outkast’s timeless “So Fresh, So Clean” before veering into island-jam territory that flows seamlessly into the title track. Fittingly, “Never Follow Suit” samples lines from the landmark hip-hop documentary Style Wars, an unmistakeable testament to the band’s recent rhythmic concerns.
“Stay Off Route” is a brief instrumental track almost exclusively composed of rhythmic instrumentation; it’s essentially a typical Radio Dept. song minus the melody line. That’s okay—it’s simply a connecting track into the irresistibly guitar-strummed “On Your Side.” The track features an unchanging but surprisingly danceable beat, enhanced only by a dub-influenced hi-hat in its closing seconds; much like the EP as a whole, it’s at once tropical and rave-oriented, able to mellow or liven the listener’s mood.
Finally, there’s a Pistol Disco “dub” remix of “Never Follow Suit.” At eight minutes long, it’s a bit tedious, essentially stretching the original song to twice its length and throwing in some bongos. Still, it’s far from an album-killer; if nothing else, it emphasizes the Radio Dept.’s recent forays into percussive exploration. Frankly, it’s great to see the band willing to toy with their signature pop-rock, breathing new life into their music as they approach their second decade.
