Drowned in Sound
It's an album that has hopefulness etched deep in every note, such is its power. One could argue that it doesn't actually go anywhere – archaeological digs move with greater speed than this – but that's not the point.Nine seconds into opener '21st Century Paradise Traveller' you're convinced you've strayed into a gloriously melodic bridge where there's some epic, shattering chorus around the corner. It can be disconcerting, waiting for the change that never comes, until you realise that every second (more or less) of the album is tinged with a gossamer-light touch that imbues it with the sense that rather than anticipating the drop, sitting back and bathing in its glow would be a much better way to enjoy it. "The Nautilus Years" is a work of such understated, almost casual beauty that it would be a crime for it to go unnoticed. It's about as far from the zeitgeist without being purposely contrary and wears its massive heart on its sleeve.
The Guardian
Actually they're a rare hybrid of shoegazing and Americana, like alt country from outer space, with twangy vocals and often acoustic melodies smothered by cosmic static and alien ambience. Sparklehorse and Grandaddy have ventured this way before while arch early-'90s shoegazers Slowdive actually transmogrified from a noisepop outfit into a new country act called Mojave 3 so it's not exactly virgin territory, but it is a field worth ploughing.
Q Magazine
If Brooklyn's MGMT borrow Flaming Lips' LSD-laced sense of humour, Sweden's Surrounded channel the more dreamy, beatific end of Wayne Coyne and co's output. In other words, they're more Do You Realize? than She Don't Use Jelly. There's an intriguing undercurrent of rustic Americana lurking beneath the echo-pedal atmospherics.
NME
Now they're back and have melodically submerged in a percussive diving bell somewhere off the rugged coastline of the Baltic Sea. Influenced by The Flaming Lips, Sigur Rós and Sparklehorse, these Nordic shoegazers have their heads solely in the stars.
PopMatters
How to describe the Swedish band Surrounded: Cure inspired; influenced by Sigur Ros and Coldplay; emotional, large-scale songs. The soft, hushed vocals complement the arrangements to a tee during "In Comfort's Tight Clothes" and the mid-tempo, roots-tinged "Paper Tangerine Crush", the greatest song with tangerine in the title you'll ever hear. While there are some songs that will be heart-tugging, perhaps the highlight is the Floydian aura oozing out of "Fellow Citizen Stars" which brings to mind "Fat Old Sun" or "Saint Tropez."
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