According to their website, the full name of Malmø, Sweden's the LK is The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos and the Sound of K (no word on how to say that in Swedish). This ungainly phrase, wisely abbreviated for general use, seems like an oblique reference to member Lindefelt's synaesthesia, which causes him to mentally associate colors with timbres. Synaesthesia's one of those weird brain glitches that seems like it could actually be cool to have, though I imagine that for those afflicted, the novelty value of being able to see sounds isn't quite as apparent. Lindefelt's partner in the LK, Fredrik, can't see sounds, but is apparently a good chef.
Both men have their own projects-- Fredrik's is a band called Fredrik, and Lindefelt performs solo electroacoustic shows with his cello-- but together they make some pretty awesome synth-pop. The music has a spiky immediacy, with Lindefelt's vocals way up front, backed by sharp beats and electronic collages. Fredrik's guitar and Fender Rhodes provides the harmonic structure, but the timbres of the instruments are rounded off and subsumed into the overall texture. It's a sound superficially similar to the Cansecos and Russian Futurists.
The key to the album's infectiousness, though, lies not so much in the vocals as in the bouncy basslines that percolate at the bottom of the songs. "Tamagotchi Freestyle" rides one of these , a disco-worthy descending phrase that perfectly backs up the instrumental hook, which Fredrik swaps between guitar and cornet. The lyrics mercifully skip any references to the once-ubiquitous digi-pets of the title in favor of calls to burn Elvis alive, and the immolation of a pop icon has never sounded quite this appealing.
I would've called "Tamagotchi Freestyle" a standout, but frankly by that standard half the album would be standouts. In addition to being a good pop record, it's a good details record-- dig the echoing pings and odd, watery guitar tone on closer "Yellow Ribbons", for instance. "Stop Being Perfect" has a great verse melody to set up the chorus, but the bed of electronic tones that worms its way through the beat is just as interesting. Then there are the staccato blasts the underpin the beginning of "Private Life of a Cat"-- what are they made of? It sounds like guitar and trumpet and white noise all smashed together to make one sound.
And speaking of cats, one of mine was completely freaked out by the way the backing vocals on "Eurovision" are injected into the song. He was convinced the sound was coming from someone in the room. The album hits a bit of a lull toward the end, with a few slow tracks that don't grab with nearly the force of their neighbors, but overall The LK Vs. the Snow is a sharp collection of songs that keeps pulling me back for more.
