Not Lars - The Gloomy And The Goony

Relatively new in my eyes, this indie artist in the synthpop field founded his project, Not Lars in 2012. While there isn't much of a history surrounding the project as of now, what I can tell you is that the man is based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and has one single and a full album out as of now.

Worry was the single released back in December of 2012, and managed to catch a bit of an audience here and there. With their full length album just released back September of 2013, the man hoped to release an album to further broaden his musical reach. And that album would happen to be The Gloomy And The Goony.

The artist describes himself as being a synth and dreamwave artist, however, in order to avoid sub genre after sub genre, we're just going to consider this album a synthpop release, because it really just is that. And it's a decent one. Some Real starts the album, and it's pretty good. The synths drag for a bit to go along with the vocals presented, although I do think the vocals could use some work. Not saying that they aren't good, but when they get louder and longer, they don't sound too good. When he's just singing normally without trying to get too emotional, such as in the chorus, it comes out well.

An album version of Worry also takes a stand, and it's not too shabby, just adding in some bass and what not. I'll Say It With Synthpop Then did come out kind of like a good 80s track, while I Was The One continued in the footsteps of Worry.

Songs such as That Poem, Home, Good Luck, and My Only Truth showed off what the artist could do when the beat got slow, and they weren't all too much to my tastes. The vocals found in My Only Truth was kind of annoying, as they got repetitious and got too high to really enjoy.

And so I came out of this release enjoying some bits and pieces here and there, but not thoroughly liking the whole thing. I admit that a lot of the beats presented within the album are really good, I think the main aspect that really kills the album in some respects would be the man's vocals. However, you can judge that for yourself. You can grab a digital copy of the album over on his BandCamp, and can check out the music video for Worry below: Apr 10 2014