As far as ridiculous claims go, the one Swedish band Mando Diao made on its Web site is one of the most pretentious out there: “We honestly believe our record is better than anything by the Who,” says the band’s bio. “Or the Kinks, or the Small Faces, for that matter. It is more even than many of the Stones’ or Beatles’ records.” While their grammar is excusable, their self-importance is not. Not that the band’s debut record, Bring ‘Em In, is bad. The record, 38 minutes of catchy garage rock, is plenty full of the hooky songs, vintage tones and youthful vigor we’ve come to expect from Scandinavia. It’s just that, since it’s so clearly influenced by those groups the band names as competitors, Bring ‘Em In doesn’t seem likely to pass up Tommy or Revolver in either sales or critical praise any time soon.
Without the cocky context, though, the album is still a fun listen. The explosive opening track, “Sheepdog” pits Mando Diao as fierce competition for fellow Swedes The Hives and The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Vocalist Gustaf Norén sings, “You’ve got no friends in your home / You’ve got no family stone / You can’t go, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’” while the band does its best to take you back to a time when guitar distortion was seen as satanic, organs were part of cutting-edge rock, and vocals were distorted because the equipment was crappy, not because it sounded cool.
Norén and bandmate Björn Dixgård trade off lead vocals throughout the album —providing welcome variety. Dixgård’s soulful, bluesy voice offsets Norén’s fiery Strokes-like delivery. Their lyrics don’t make a lick of sense, but there’s no fault there. The Beatles’ lyrics probably wouldn’t make sense if they were written in Swedish — come to think of it, not many of them really make much sense in English.
In the end, Bring ‘Em In isn’t anything terribly special. There are a number of bands doing the same thing right now. Mando Diao is among the better of them, but still the album is not quite unique. Though for anyone who feels saying “yeah, yeah, yeah” is as important as having a “family stone,” Bring ‘Em In will be a welcome addtion to their music collection.