Futile Crimes

FUTILE CRIMES is the début album by THE EMBASSY, a duo based in Göteborg, Sweden. Released in 2002 to great acclaim in their homeland, it sadly had very little or no impact when distributed in other countries. 　　

It is a pity, because what we have here is an incredibly compact (32 minutes) and immensely fascinating POP album. 　　

We know that there are many stairways to Pop Heaven, so let us trace a lineage for this record. It runs like this: Serge Gainsbourg, Kraftwerk, New Order, The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, The Beloved, Trembling Blue Stars... Are these enough? Because THE EMBASSY are exactly in this league, and in no derivative way. 　　

With a singer who is probably Neil Tennant and Bernard Sumner's lost son and songs of ruthless, subtly erotic beauty, FUTILE CRIMES will carry you away on a golden cloud of intoxicatingly joyous melancholy. Add to that romantic/biting lyrics, and you will have a classic patiently waiting to be fêted. 　　

What more could you wish for? Well, after this you might want to listen to TACKING, THE EMBASSY's second album that was released in 2007 to... great acclaim in their homeland and virtually no recognition anywhere else. Can you see a pattern emerging?