CD Reviews

The Blue Van

Dear Independence | TVT

By EMILY ZEMLER | January 2, 2007

3.5 Stars

The new album from Denmark’s the Blue Van doesn’t just look like a remnant of the ’60s, with its black-and-white photos of the scruffy quartet and weathered-looking cover, but it actually sounds like someone dug it out of a box of old Kinks and Cream LPs someone found in an attic. This isn’t anything new for the group, whose debut revealed their predilection for bluesy guitars, lots of reverb, and trashcan drums. But on this second disc, they perfect their retro stylings. Singer Steffen Westmark howls, croons, and even whistles his way through the disc’s rollicking, gritty tracks with as much appeal as his more trend-conscious contemporaries in Jet and the Strokes. The Blue Van have been compared to both bands, but there’s something uniquely genuine about the retroisms on Dear Independence.