• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Apr 05, 2016 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

If you’re just now sitting down for your first serving of Dinner, welcome—you’re in for a strange ride. The intrepid Dane’s off-kilter approach to music picks and pulls from across the pop music spectrum (but especially 1980s pop) to mold some of the most magical, sexed-up, and unabashedly weird music you’ll come across. Once you develop a taste, you’ll never give it up.

When he spoke to us during Psychic Lovers’ recording, Anders Rhedin promised an album of “‘90s dance mixed with ‘70s kraut,” but there’s a whole lot more stirred into this batch than he’d initially let on; his sticky baritone is the record’s prevailing flavor, entrenched in a wide range of eclectic, electronic sounds. The songs are a near-even mix of the familiar and the bizarre: “Turn Me On” could pass as a lost New Wave hit from the far side of the Iron Curtain, and “Holy Fuck!” sounds like someone slipped a mickey into Depeche Mode’s chamomile. (On the more traditional side, “Lie” is a tender heartbreak song that might endear Dinner to Magnetic Fields fans.) Blunt earworms like “Gone” and “The World” will hammer their way into your brain and set up long-term residence. There are points, though, where Dinner’s lack of inhibitions results in a mess of sounds that just don’t play well together. “A.F.Y.,” in particular, breaks down into a terrifying cacophony of industrial bashing, heroic ‘80s synth themes, distorted whispers, and the meaty crunch of cock-rock guitar riffage. (Imagine you’re watching a Chuck Norris movie in the back of a roadside chop shop during rush hour.) The beguiling tracks far outweigh the maddening ones, however. While last year’s Dinner compilation Three EPs may be an easier entry point, Psychic Lovers is an easily recommended second course. (www.facebook.com/dinnerveryofficial)

Author rating: 6.5/10