I went into hearing this album with some trepidation. I've been fond of Dungen almost from their beginning and held them as one of the best of the neo psych groups of the last 20+ years. A couple of months ago, their second album Stadsvandringar showed up as a random pick. And even though I had it as their lowest rated album, most assuredly a revisit would bring it up a notch. That didn't happen. In fact the opposite and I sold it. My fear at that point is that I had inflated the group in my mind. That they really weren't that special. Just another garden variety psych band that perhaps I was elevating due to a lack of similar bands during an era when more were needed.
Now Dungen 4 comes up. Here we go... And right away all my fears subsided. This is a completely different sound. One that I'm going to struggle to define. I listened to it 5 times in a row (!) and it resulted in a +1 rating. Keep in mind it was already rated very high. It reached the top echelon of 5 stars / Gnosis 13+. The music is highly melodic, the instrumentals are very psychedelic, the sound is analog perfect. Gustav Ejstes and Reine Fiske have multiple peak moments throughout. The songwriting is almost that of the mid to late 60s orchestrated pop era - a little bit tying in with the Japanese Shibuya-kei movement. The music texture is heavily influenced by the Swedish masters of the past like Parson Sound and Algarnas Tradgard, except it sounds nothing at all like them. This isn't avant garde in the least. There are not many albums that I need 5 listens to work out in my head and continue to enjoy each one better than the last. But Dungen 4 is one of them. Now I cannot wait to hear the other Dungen albums in my collection (most of them), as it's possible they too may enjoy a +1. Even those I've already written thoroughly about.
Ownership: CD: 2008 Kemado (USA). Digi-pak with recording details and a sales strip (like an obi). Purchased new upon release. You can get this practically for free these days. No reason not too.
LP: 2016 Mexican Summer (USA). Single sleeve with picture inner bag. Of late, a bit of madness entered my brain, and I've been looking at potentially replacing CDs with LPs if the latter was offered to me cheap. And that happened here late last year (2021). But there's no way I'm parting with the CD (which made up the review above), and it remains my primary copy. Also, the LP doesn't offer anything extra. But I am glad to have picked this up. I'm usually good with both formats for records that rate this high. It remains unplayed however.
Hardly any photos of this album on Discogs. I should fix that, but I probably won't...
9/29/22 (new entry)
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