I’ve always felt that Pacific! had unrealised potential. Hungry for more of the same after discovering the new sounds of Sweden coming from Air France, The Tough Alliance and Boat Club, not to mention the interesting scene that labels such as Sincerely Yours hinted at; the more the better. Previous Pacific! releases though were a frustrating listen – nearly there but not quite.

The new album Narcissus while an improvement, doesn’t quite work for me. However, I wonder whether this is as a result of personal preference – from having heard too many similar records from Scandinavia in recent years. This is a movie soundtrack of an album and unlike The Tough Alliance’s hidden gem, Escaping Your Ambitions, this is less incidental – more panoramic. It has its moments – most notably the title track’s dancey synth overload that builds to a euphoric peak and great guitar riffs. I also enjoyed the moody closer ‘The Gaze’ with its hazy coda and ominous bass before.

What I can’t escape from in these tracks though is a tendency towards the generic. In any genre of music, there tends to be a point where a sound has been explored sufficiently and diminishing returns set in. At that point it’s time to either refine to a classic or move on.

Pacific! have arrived late to the party and as a result, Narcissus comes across as merely pleasant. If released back in 2006 when those early records were arriving from Gothenburg I’d probably be more charitable but at the end of 2010 it’s too little too late. Perhaps I’m jaded. If you’re new to the sounds of Sweden in recent years this may be a good place to start. None of the tracks are dreadful – it’s actually a fairly consistent album in a generic way. But compared to the wistfulness and wanderlust of Air France, the day-glo romantic hedonism of The Tough Alliance or the beautiful Balearic pop of Boat Club just to name a few in recent years, I wonder whether in comparison you’d find it wanting as well.