HeiBräu

Norway’s The National Bank remains a side project even with their second release, Come On Over To The Other Side, but carries the weight of its members’ careers, as it’s easily more popular than the whole of them combined (Bigbang and Jaga Jazzist). Having topped Norwegian charts for a staggering 25 weeks with their self-titled 2004 debut, Come On Over was nothing short of a hotly anticipated sophomore effort from what Norway considers its premier supergroup.

This doesn’t change the fact that the band is more or less unheard of in the western music scene, a circumstance the Scandinavians are doing a startlingly poor job of remedying. Unlike its home country in summer, this album is shadowy and warm, a needed touch of blue-eyed soul since Honeycut’s 2006 The Day I Turned To Glass.

“Family” is a natural single choice, with its winning funk-pop verses and swelling chorus, the synth counterpointing Thomas Dybdahl’s retreating voice at its close. At first glance, its lyrical substance might seem typical and rather emblematic of pop music’s pervasive theme: romantic love. The intimacy of the song, however, is bracingly genuine upon hearing the end of the chorus: “but no matter what you do / lean on me / after all, we’re family / and that doesn’t change.”

Despite taking the time to craft some slower-paced material, the band resists lollygagging in any aural territory too long, and appears happy to build its arrangements a piece at a time to keep the listener on the line. The slow draw is an art lost on many artists these days, and sadly, the result finds listeners relieved rather than satisfied at the end of a given song, simply because it’s been hitting on the same auditory level for four (or more) straight minutes. An album full of tracks like this stirs a negative visceral reception that is both decided and nearly inexplicable, like a grandmother’s gentle scratch that lingers too long over the forearm. “Taste of Me,” by contrast, is exemplary in this respect, fully sussing the pizzicato strings and harp before introducing the stomping drums for the big finish. Listening to that track could be the shortest five minutes of your week.

The National Bank’s “Family.”

The ambient and atmospheric touches place this album past simple songwriting and fully in the realm of mature, artistic arrangement. Yet for such a sonically rich palette, The National Bank is surprisingly upbeat in many places; Dybdahl’s mellow crooning and subtle harmonies play like a buoyant doppelganger of fellow Norwegians Kings of Convenience (“The Balladeer,” “Cubicle Man”). Come On Over also courts versatility, and sheds the singer-songwriter trappings to great effect: the sparing “Something New” captures the dark in a way that bearded folksy look-alike Ray LaMontagne hasn’t, even granted his technically superior vocal flourishes.

For The National Bank, it seems the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Come On Over To The Other Side is an intricate nighttime pop album that leaves little to be desired.

- JB