What Goes Up Must Calm Down

Describing the Faintest Ideas as reminiscent of what might happen if Robert Smith fronted the Clean after they'd all pounded a few cups of espresso is reasonably accurate, but it also shortchanges the high-spirited fun and genuine charm of the group's debut album, 2007's What Goes Up Must Calm Down. While the Faintest Ideas have clear influences in smart, fast indie pop (with a dash of noise added for seasoning), the band's palpable enthusiasm rings clear on all 15 songs (which zip by in less than 29 minutes), and the jagged ring of Christoffer Lärkner and Daniel Svanhög's guitars mesh with an unexpected precision that indicates beneath their frantic exterior, these four young Swedes have no shortage of imagination as well as a clear sonic game plan. And when they sing things like "There's nothing wrong with wearing the same T-shirt day after day," "We are the sissies they call lame," or "Your poems are still quite bad, but not as bad as this," the Faintest Ideas celebrate their geekiness with such a glorious and unselfconscious joy that it's hard to imagine anyone not being won over by them — not since Jonathan Richman or the Feelies has anyone in rock & roll made their social ineptitude sound so palpable, and so curiously hip at the same time. It's hard to imagine what the approval of indie pop fanatics around the world might do to a band with an outlook like this, but What Goes Up Must Calm Down captures the Faintest Ideas in a state of gleeful innocence, and it's a truly splendid introduction.