Vogon Poetry

Sweden and synthpop. A seeemingly tireless combination harking back to the early eighties. Together with Germany, Sweden has been carrying the electropop flag with flair, from the careless eighties all through the dark nineties until today. Vogon Poetry lifted most of their inspiration for last year’s debut “Don’t Panic” from Erasure and Pet Shop Boys and occasionally did so beautifully (“The Diceman”!). “The Prefect Stories” is essentially more of the same, enclosed in a slightly darker surrounding.

Now signed to Russian label ScentAir, the trio shows more confidence here, resulting in a more mature, coherent sound. Still, there are shortcomings in the production phase as well as in the overall song writing. Some tracks come across as near-demo versions, sounding a bit too raw and unevolved. Others have an instant catchy pop appeal like “Hyperspace Bypass” or “Virtues”. They also do a pretty decent cover of IAMX killer “Spit It out”.

For their next adventure, I should hope Vogon Poetry takes more time to polish on their material as the talent and skills needed are clearly there. Both their albums show promise as well as things that need work. Maybe, and hopefully, third time’s a charm.