Tigerdrottningen & La Belle Epoque

[stjärnor]

I thought we needed a thread here in the English section to discuss the upcoming release of album 11 on April 30th and the single La Belle Epoque, which is released on March 12th.

I'm really looking forward to hearing the single on Wednesday (if not before), and to see what direction that album 11 has taken the band. Excited and almost nervous at this point.

Today kent are in a 'different kind of studio' photographing the album cover for the album, and thinking back to the previous albums, the last time kent themselves featured on the album cover was the first album, so I do actually wonder if it's the band in the photo, or something/someone else entirely.

I'll update the thread title when we know the name of the album.

What are your thoughts?

[Diepher]

What are your thoughts?

Hej Stjärnor,

well, that´s nice to see, that there is someone posting about the new album. many people on this pages, but noone who wants to write something about the latest news.
And the latest news are great! Man, there will be a new album, peoples where are you?

Ok, now my opinion. Well, i am very looking for No. 11, because i am curious, what kind of way they go now. I mean the direction is clear. After resting in dark chapters, in sorrows and after thinking about bad times and funerals, they left even that path and moved into a completely different way of thinking, of looking. Hope, you know what i mean.

Now they left old paths and moved over to thinking positive. Maybe Jocke closed old chapters, closed bad chapters, found his peace and can look now more objective, more positive. Du & Jag Döden was the most dark, emotionally, desperate and gloomy album they ever made. But now the look forward... they have been looking for en plats i solen, so that they found out, that they don´t are afraid of the darkness anymore...

The Band and especially Jocke have become aduld. The old days are now golden, they are looking back to the great old days (999) and I think that "la belle epoque" is already a spoiler. The album will be positive, looking forward and all those optimistic ways of interpretation.

I am really excited and can´t wait until next wednesday!

[trickster]

I am so so so curious about the sound direction too.
(Secretly hoping for heave guitars but "electro" songs will be much enjoyed too)

I saw the single pic a couple of days before they revealed on Amazon and was hoping it was not legit.
I really hope they have the iconic Kent logo at least.

So how is everyone enjoying the pink/black scheme? :P

[stjärnor]

Hi Diepher, nice to see a new(-ish) member in here! Although you registered a couple of years ago I don't recognise your name, so a 'hello & welcome' from me!

The cover, I must say, has grown on me. Some how it looks electronic. The use of a 'digital-style' font, the monchromatic colour scheme, maybe explains why, although I've never linked the coverart of a kent single with the actual sound of the music before, so I don't think they'll have returned to the electro sound, and it's just my mind playing tricks with the font that's been used. The pink/black scheme of the home page and here on the forum (pink links- nice!) I actually really like, but I am kind of fond of pink/grey/black colour combos anyway. A few weeks back I was thinking of all the previous album covers and the dominant colours used on them, I ruled out pink for this album, because it was already the main colour on TTS, I was seeing a purple toned image in my head. Yes, I'm sad!

This time 2 years ago, I was in the same excited/nervous/curious state waiting to hear 999, and we had the lyrics here on the forum before hearing the single- and I had no idea reading those lyrics how the song might sound. I will admit I had the 'what if I don't like it?' moments, but as soon as the first bars played on the video, I knew that I already loved it. There isn't much from the majority of the kent albums that I don't love (the early stuff is where I'm a bit so-so), and even if a song/album might take a few listens to get into (TTS is the perfect example for me of this), I know that kent will have produced something special again. I think that not all music can be appreciated with just 1 or 2 listens.

Diepher, until recently I had never really done an in-depth study about the whys and whens (if that makes sense) of the kent albums- probably because I came to them at DOJD and then bought a couple previous, then bought TTS, then a couple of older ones again, until I read an essay that someone had written about kent and a comment on here on the forum about the albums being in 'pairs' with their sound and mood, and that made me really notice the change in the more recent albums becoming 'lighter' in tone.

I was surprised how quiet it was here in this part of the forum when the album/single news broke, and decided that if I actually made a discussion thread rather than just posting the translations, then people might actually come out and comment! yay! Where are you all????

Anyway, there's a nice big post from Jocke that I'll translate this afternoon so I'll be back on then.

edit, I forgot to say, I wonder if this will be a digital only release for the single? No news of formats yet, make me think this, but I could be wrong....

[Kurvitz]

I don't like it.

I was hoping the single cover would be a picture of that medal Jocke was awarded with. (The H.M. KONUNGENS MEDALJ!!!) And the album cover would be just him, in a ridiculous light blue frock, wearing that medal.

("FRAMSTAENDE INSATER INOM SVENST POPULÄRMUSIK!” - album title.)

[.namnlös]

Well, as a musician, the main thing I hope is that the band have done something they will enjoy playing, and are proud of; because that's what it's all about.

Purely speaking as a kent fan, the last record didn't quite appeal to me in the same way the run from D&JD to Röd did. That's not to say it didn't have enjoyable moments, songs like Petroleum and Beredd were the standouts for me, but I found it didn't warrant as much heavy rotation as I usually get from a kent release. I'm not saying that it "wasn't kent" or anything (I can't stand people who say that kind of thing,) but I just didn't get into the overall style and songwriting as much, especially the slower songs. I think that's fair enough though, you don't have to like absolutely everything a band does. I came to the band in the era of Isola & Hagnesta Hill, so I have seen this grouping or phases of the band that so many people speak of.

In the past, we've often seen phases and then reactions to those phases. So you had the dark indie rock of some of the earlier work, the electronic period, which phased into a more uplifting indie/pop phase with a more chilled out sound and a mix of all instruments (neither exclusively guitars or synths,) which brings us to 2014. I would be very surprised if there is anything resembling the dark rock so many folks seem to want to hear. As you grow older, I find you put less aggression into your music (unless you're a metal band) because you just don't feel like you did when you were 23 anymore. Even the sounds on Ettor & Nollor were very very Kent, without being typical songwriting structures, so clearly they have more avenues to explore. So I have hope, but not so much expectation for Wednesday. Obviously I want to be returning here saying I love it!

I can imagine that because the cover is all "digital" looking, that the contents will be anything but, if the kent style of having a bit of fun is anything to go by......

[trickster]

Hey, first of all I ll start by saying that the last Radiohead album wasn't Radiohead. :P

So, reading that you guys are doing a flashback to Kent discography I remembered that 1 or 2 of albums the band released after 2006 were not what I was expecting and I was listening to them on repeat thinking "OK, it's OK. This might be a Kent album that I will not adore, but it is good". And after some time (1-2 or 3 weeks) I did not realize how, but I found myself saying "Holy crap! This album transformed into a favorite! How can this be possible!".

So my point is that even though my favorite band has released albums that did not follow a certain form, they never disappointed me. I enjoyed every single one of their releases and I am ready for the new one. Waiting to see what they have for us this time. And this is exciting.

I admit that I am not excited about the cover art of the single and that I am a huge Jonas Linell fan.
But I am waiting to see how this will look in person.
I suppose they will have physical releases for the single too and hopefully a 7" too.

[JukkeBerry]

I'm really looking forward to the new music and new tour dates! However, pink isn't my favorite color. When I first saw the web site color changes, I thought Kent were celebrating breast cancer awareness. On the other hand, I didn't like the Egyptian theme of the last album either. Luckily, the music remained great!

[Diepher]

Hi Diepher, nice to see a new(-ish) member in here! Although you registered a couple of years ago I don't recognise your name, so a 'hello & welcome' from me!

Diepher, until recently I had never really done an in-depth study about the whys and whens (if that makes sense) of the kent albums- probably because I came to them at DOJD and then bought a couple previous, then bought TTS, then a couple of older ones again, until I read an essay that someone had written about kent and a comment on here on the forum about the albums being in 'pairs' with their sound and mood, and that made me really notice the change in the more recent albums becoming 'lighter' in tone.

edit, I forgot to say, I wonder if this will be a digital only release for the single? No news of formats yet, make me think this, but I could be wrong....

Thanks for welcoming! Yes, i am actually from Germany and didn´t write into the english-speaking forum before. But it seems, that there are no active KENT-Fans in the german-speaking forum, too! (ok, we have some current threads, but not many People who post there really regularly.) Well, I think you don´t have to be scared - they will release the single not only in the internet, i think. Also En plats i solen (which has been a small project) has been released as a CD, so I think they will continue that. But what I recognized within the last weeks is, that the distance between their last Albums has become quite shorter, hasn´t it? I mean - some Albums before, there were 3, maybe 4 years between the albums and now they are releasing them every couple of years. Ok, now on to the cover. You said, that you expect a digital-electronic sounding album? Well, i think that many people just give the covers too much importance. When you look back to Röd, you couldn´t even estimate, that the album would get/would be so electronic in the end. I think thats too much speculation. I agree with you, when you say that there shouldn´t be a moment anymore to say "What if i dont like it?". Kent have been growen up so great and everythink, what they´ve done in the last century has been something Special. Every Album is completely unique in its way of Interpretation. There is no album, on which i have the feeling that it sounds like an other before or where i have the Feeling, that its less of ideas. Noone! :-) And in the end i wanna say that you´re right - they became "lighter" in the sound. Someone in this forum wrote something, in which I absolutely agree. As I already said, they become older, they became more adult and so also their music isn´t so agressive anymore. It has become lighter and in my opinion also closer. Don´t know if "closer" is the same word for the word, what i am in Germany thinking about. But i hope you understand. :-)

[SirNoodle]

As a Belgian (dutch speaking) I've been reading the english forum for quite a while, but haven't posted either But with the new album coming up, just wanted to add my thoughts to this thread.

I'm guessing it will be a more electro-orientated album, by the looks of the single-cover, but that is a very wild guess. And I agree that album covers don't always match the contents. I'm still puzzled about the whole eqyptian style of the last album, although the white and gold did ring through somewhere in the music (which I thought was optimistic and bright).

In the end it's just fun thinking about it, and toying around with certain theories, as part of the experience. I'm just hoping for some fine songs, and then some brilliant concerts as well.

[Corrado Cigna]

I have been buzzing since last Monday. It seems to happen everytime they announce new material...
And the usual serie of questions... How will the single sound like? How will the album be? Will they do a warm up tour again? An indoor arena tour in winter? How is Jocke looking? Will it manage to top DOJD or Rod or TTS or EPIS or JAIRPM???
The bottom line is... I AM DEAD EXCITED!!!
I like the cover of LBE... the lettering is very Kraftwerk.

And yes... will the single be a digital only as Skissar For Sommaren/Gamla Ullevi was??

[.namnlös]

Little clue from the reviews just posted; "musically sounds like a logical continuation of the quartet's previous album ."

[Kurvitz]

So, my swedish friends, translation time again!

https://twitter.com/KentTheBand/stat.../photo/1/large

The two single reviews on their facebook page suggest the single does not have a traditional pop structure, is very, very political, has "ominous chanting", and opens with a cinematic sounding arpeggio and a somewhat electronic beat. Sounds dark. And is a continuation of "the quartet's previous work". And the closest thing to a chorus goes: "All for all, one for one, we start over again", the opening line being: "I am the hand that holds the flag"

Sounds f****g ace!

[grundrisse]

I don't like it.

I was hoping the single cover would be a picture of that medal Jocke was awarded with. (The H.M. KONUNGENS MEDALJ!!!) And the album cover would be just him, in a ridiculous light blue frock, wearing that medal.

("FRAMSTAENDE INSATER INOM SVENST POPULÄRMUSIK!” - album title.)

you mean like this?



sorry, jocke.

[Kurvitz]

Yes. I mean EXACTLY like this. Kinda goes with the lyrics too, come to think of it