Amason's Sky City proves the enduring creative potential of the dreaded supergroup

Amason are also keen on vintage influences. However, it's the shiny surfaces of the 1980's rather than the heady days of the late hippie era that this five-piece Swedish 'supergroup' are most audibly indebted to on Sky City, their debut full-length following a single and an EP in 2013. Tracks like the shimmering "Kelly" and “Went to War”, a melancholy duet between Idiot Wind's Amanda Bergman (whose huskily expressive voice - think of Wildbirds & Peacedrums's Mariam Wallentin without the vocal acrobatics- are Amason's most powerful weapon) and Ejstes, appear to bow down to such heavily hair-sprayed Fleetwood Mac albums as Mirage (1982) and Tango In The Night (1987).

However, these oft-tapped sources are processed through a distinctly modern filter of synth- and keyboard-wielding music fanatics who may have once secretly, ironically adored a slice of painstakingly processed 80's cheese but have since come to wholeheartedly love the soul and hurt lurking beneath the slickness, and strive - very successfully - to achieve the same emotional resonance in their own output. Aided by throbbing, richly layered but never overcrowded production that rightfully slaps Nils Törnqvist’s drums in the front and centre to help build and maintain a propulsive momentum, Sky City sounds both retro and, well, now-tro, equally fit for the nights out and pondering at home on your lonesome.

Some so-called supergroup projects collapse into a heap of barely connected stylistic ticks. Virtually dripping with immense, dreamy pop melodies, Sky City presents a winningly unified front; only the Richard Hawley pastiche “The Moon as a Kite” seems to have crashed the wrong party. The only possible complaint is that some cuts flow by a bit too smoothly; another dose of the urgency and turbulence "Älgen" and "NFB" wouldn't have gone amiss on this otherwise flawless record.