Superfamily - Warszawa
Release Date: May 21, 2007
Label: Propeller/Universal

Norway’s Superfamily have created something potent and undeniably special with their second full-length Warszawa. Cribbing the best from rock acts of years past (and usually improving on them), it’s easy to feel, upon listening to the record, like this is what everything’s been building up to. This is the grand scope The Killers were going for. It’s the perfect concoction of space age hyper drama that Muse just nearly missed last year, and it's what U2 would sound like if they truly were the gods that everyone seems to make them out to be.

A bizarre concept album about love and loss and time machines, it feels very much like a product of the seventies, even though the synth-heavy music is clearly inspired primarily by the eighties. Despite all of its heady ruminations, though, the album boasts eight huge, instant, singalong pop songs. I Could Be A Real Winner and The Radio Has Expressed Concerns About What You Did Last Night are already deserved hits in the band’s home country. Each possesses the kind of melody that feels like a lost classic upon the first listen, yet in no way seems derivative or uninventive. The title track, with its majestic, symphonic synth work could just end up being the sweeping, lovelorn throwback of the year. Most instantly impressive, though, is Teens Of The 70’s, a wild mash-up of rock opera, stabbing dance, and punk attitude (propelled by yelping front man Steven Wilson). If you’re not involved in the record yet, from this point on it’ll sweep you up in its spacey fantasia. Put simply, the track redefines the term “epic.”

Warszawa is, if not the best, at least one of the best things you’re going to hear all year. It’s just in a completely different league than most everything out there right now. It’s the kind of album that redefines things, sets a new standard. Undoubtedly, a staggering achievement, and it goes without saying, a must-own. A

Key Tracks: Teens Of The 70’s, The Radio Has Expressed Concerns About What You Did Last Night, Warszawa