The Mary Onettes
Islands - LABRADOR
FILTER Grade: 85%

In the wake of punk and from, of all places, the bleak, post-industrial desolation of Thatcherite Liverpool, came an odd crop of bands with lit-school names like Lotus Eaters, Wild Swans and Pale Fountains. They wore poncey scarves, quoted Keats and Tennyson, and made music that was equally despondent, exquisite and heroically romantic. Stockholm’s The Mary Onettes could barely be distinguished from said predecessors, which marks out a resplendent day for those for whom staring somberly out of train windows is an exigent part of the music listening experience. But where, say, the similarly grey Editors are all grim and stentorian, The Mary Onettes are wondrously fey, elegantly doomed romantics. Amidst the soaring atmospherics of opener “Puzzles,” with a searing desperation Philip Ekstrom laments, “I know it hasn’t been the best year/So let’s be numb.” Such doleful resignation haunts the entire expanse of the unwaveringly glorious Islands, cosseted by opulent, mournful strings, chiming guitars and utterly flawless melodies. Literally, a more beautifully styled and piercingly, viscerally honest record you’d be at pains to locate. Scarf not included.