Sometimes you don‰’t really care for a band or musician. It can be due to the fact that the first album or song you picked to start off with didn‰’t sync well with you, the band members don‰’t look attractive enough, the band name pisses you off (I actually did not choose to listen to The Killers by this very odd reasoning ‰ÛÒ and that I also hated the song “Somebody Told Me”), or they just don‰’t inject the adrenaline in you.

This band certainly will not give you an adrenaline boost or a morning booster one gets from hard thumping beats. It will suit quiet contemplation, a slow walk along a scenic backdrop, or moods and moments that make you space out. The Radio Dept., formed in 1995 from beautiful Sweden, was formed by schoolmates Elin Almered (who is not a member anymore) and Johan Ducanson, and the band name is translated from Radioavdelningen, which means The Radio Department in Swedish. However, Elin did not actually record any material with the band, which took a hiatus till three years later, recruiting new members and conveniently adopting the original name.

The record that has me still buzzing and enthralled is their third album, Clinging to a Scheme, released in 2010 on the Labrador label, which boasts many underrated bands on their roster as well. I began listening to them off a track from the movie Marie Antoinette, and while it bears similar lush harmonies to the songs in Clinging to a Scheme, a certain kind of energy was just missing, and I hence, didn‰’t really give them much of a bother. Until Clinging to a Scheme came. And this track, is one perfect arrangement of lush instrumentation (especially in the middle of the song), sampling (the opening lines to the song are grabbed from an interview from Thurston Moore) and lyric work (I‰’m a little like you/ I‰’m lonely inside/ But while I endeavor to feel pretty/ You just stand by).

The Radio Dept. ‰ÛÒ “Heaven‰’s on Fire”

“David,‰” also from the same record, is a little less complex, with simpler percussion beats and rhythms peppering the vocals, with xylophones, the tambourine and some somber drum beats heading to the end. The lyrics playfully skirt along the subtle themes of homosexuality as well (Asleep for twenty years with this feeling/ But I was on your side/ And he‰’s spent some 20 years with this feeling of being lost inside), adding more mystique to this simple, but yet fascinating and poppish song.

The Radio Dept. ‰ÛÒ “David”

If you like your music with a good build-up and pace but not too overwhelming, give this album a listen. And hopefully it will make it into your all time favorites as it did to me, track by track.