Moll Flanders have been on the Scandanavian music scene for six years now. Concentrating purely on live shows the band have gained a substantial following in their homeland. With a reputation of being one of the best live acts in Sweden, can the raw and raucous live sound be translated onto disc for their long overdue debut album? Maybe not.

The clue is in the title. Out Of Fashion. Dated, unrelevant, tired and boring. Its even as if frontman Mathias is admitting defeat on album opener Go Go Go “lets pretend we never did it / it was a mistake in front of the critics”. Quite. The eleven tracks on offer all feel forced. A bagful of cliched ideas with little or no focus. It all sounds a little, well, constipated. By no means is this intended to be a hacksaw review, there are glimmers of hope here, albeit small ones. The band work best when they are displaying their raw energy that comes with a Moll Flanders live show. On tracks like Gimme Gimme Gimme and Jupiter it’s obvious the band are in their comfort zone and it suits them. The buzz-saw guitars and twitchy, nervous melodies would have The Hives quaking in their boots a few years ago. Whilst Time hints that the band just might have it in them, somewhere, to become Swedens answer to The Killers.

The rest of the album just doesn’t add up and becomes a chore to listen to. It feels so unbelivably rushed, thrown together and totally lacking in focus. I’m convinced that they have it in them though, the previously mentioned highlights offer a glimmer of what is possible from the band. They just need to hone their sound more next time around as ultimately Out Of Fashion is the sound of a band treading water.
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Links
Moll Flanders [official site] [myspace]