Pelle Carlberg writes songs as if he's dashing off letters to the editor. On previous albums he's addressed television coverage of Warren Zevon's death ("Musikbyrån Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack"), a negative record review ("Go to Hell, Miss Rydell"), and his limited fanbase ("Middleclass Kid"), all with caustic wit, self-deprecating humor, and absurdly catchy melodies that make even his harshest comments go down easy. The Lilac Time, his third solo album, continues this op-ed approach, holding forth on cars, airlines, Facebook, Stockholm, and political correctness. The tunes are still there, but something about the album sticks in your craw: Indie pop's favorite grumpus is starting to sound like Andy Rooney.
"Animal Lovers" grouses at just what its title suggests: those who love animals but treat people as subhuman. A rhino at the local zoo died, Carlberg recalls, and the citizens mourned the loss, but "when Grandma died, no one cried." Everyone has felt this sense of unfairness, but rather than coming across as universal, the song just sounds snippy. "51,3", about a disappointing Facebook quiz, and "Tired of Being PC", about being well-educated and progressive, fare dismally as well. Carlberg's mock outrage sounds best when it's attached to an equally assertive melody: "Metal to Metal", about a lemon that breaks down outside Berlin, contains the album's most insistent hook, which makes the refrain seem like the musings of a truly exasperated man: "Metal to metal is no good, but stupid to stupid is no better." Likewise, "Fly Me to the Moon" sugarcoats its anti-airline rant ("Cut your costs, but never piss on your passengers") with handclaps, whistling, and syrupy strings.
Carlberg is getting older, which makes him not only grouchier but more nostalgic. As the name-dropping title suggests, The Lilac Time is perhaps most concerned with the passage of time and the rosiness of the past. "Tonight I'll be a teenager again," he sings with Club 8's Karolina Komstedt on the upbeat "Nicknames", which sounds both triumphant and a little pathetic. "1983 (Pelle & Sebastian)" is a spot-on re-creation of a Boy With the Arab Strap outtake in which Carlberg recounts his misadventures hanging out in the city as a teenager. It even ends with a "A Space Boy Dream"-style monologue that leavens the nostalgia with a dose of public humiliation. The Lilac Time may not be Carlberg's strongest album, but it shows him at least trying to address the trappings of adulthood, no matter how banal they may be.
