''Things We Do for Love'' is the sixth studio album by the Swedish new wave band The Sounds and was released in 2020 by Arnioki Records.

Background

With most of the band members having started families since the release of the previous studio album ''Weekend'' in 2013, The Sounds went into a hiatus of seven years. In 2017, they released an EP, ''The Tales That We Tell'', but were focused more on personal matters than on songwriting. Guitarist and keyboardist, Jesper Anderberg took a three-years break to study computer engineering. After the release of the EP, the band continued writing new tracks "and some of the songs that didn’t fit on the EP were saved for this album that we knew eventually was going to come out," said Anderberg. He also revealed that the track "Dreaming of You" was inspired by

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member S ...

. Unlike the previous The Sounds albums that had a set timeframe for writing, the creation of ''Things We Do for Love'' was stretched out over the years. Originally scheduled to be released with a tour in early 2020, the release of ''Things We Do for Love'' had to be postponed due to the restrictions of the

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pandemic.

Reception

The album received mostly favourable international reviews. '' Göteborgs-Posten'' wrote that the song "Dreaming of You" was "the perfect mix of ABBA, Roxette and Ace of Base" whereas the title track "Things We Do For Love" was new wave that was highly reminiscent of Blondie. The reviewer criticised though that while singer

Maja Ivarsson Maja Ivarsson (; born 2 October 1979) is a Swedish singer and lead vocalist of the Swedish indie rock band The Sounds. Career The Sounds formed in 1998 in Helsingborg, by childhood friends guitarist and vocalist Felix Rodriguez and bassist Johan ...

was "cool as ever" on this release, the rest of the band remained somewhat "anonymous". According to ''

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'', this album was The Sounds' best album since the 2011 release ''

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'', signalling that "growth is possible nearly two decades into a career". The review cited influences of

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and the Beach Boys as well as

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. The Finnish ''Kulttuuri-Toimitus'' found that while ''Things We Do For Love'' could not match the bands debut album ''Living'' in America and could not live up to the standards of its opening track, it was still versatile in its "electronic darkness". The track "Bonnie and Clyde" was noted to stand out for being calm and not as swirling as the rest of the songs on the album. The reviewer for ''

Borås Tidning ''Borås Tidning'' is a Swedish language daily newspaper published in Borås, Sweden. History and profile ''Borås Tidning'' was established qua the Borås weckoblad on 1 September 1826. The paper has its headquarters in Borås. It had two pre ...

'' was more reluctant. He called the album a "subtle comeback" and concluded that "''Things We Do for Love'' never reaches the majestic heights that the British inspirers did".

Track listing

References

{{The Sounds 2020 albums The Sounds albums