The Swedish indie/dream pop trio that is Eskobar have built an incredibly diverse and extensive discography, ever since frontman Daniel Bellqvist, guitarist Frederik Zäll, and drummer Jocke Brunnberg came together back in 1994, in order to make this experimental musical project a reality.
Throughout the various different points in their career, Eskobar has brought listeners many different flavours of indie pop, which serves as a convincing reflection of the band’s love for music as a whole. Amongst the styles that Eskobar had covered, there had previously been a fair few Britpop-flavoured tunes that can be found scattered across Eskobar’s discography. But this was something that the band seemingly wanted to really pin down, in the year of 2020.
Following the most recent body of work prior to 2020, The Break up EP, this year saw the three pieces of Eskobar come together once more after a short hiatus. And it felt very clear to us that Eskobar wanted to really grab 2020 by the horns, and bring us their most Britpop-inspired set of tracks to date, all in preparation for their newest album, Chapter 2.
Despite its title, Chapter 2 is actually Eskobar’s seventh album release. But we feel that the name was given to this album actually points to the new chapter in their career as a whole or a brand new outlook towards how the band makes music. Indeed, the primary aesthetic of Chapter 2 definitely stands out from much of their discography prior to 2020.
We enjoyed experiencing this sound that Eskobar have fully embraced this year, which could be found within the many teasers the band had released in the lead-up to Chapter 2. Particularly in tracks like “When Your Heroes Fall’, ‘Behind The Sun’, and ‘Living in the Sky’, just to name a few, we felt an incredibly raw sense of the festively gritty Britpop sound, which in the case of Chapter 2, primarily seems to take inspiration from the likes of The Stone Roses.
Following the six teaser tracks that Eskobar had generously dished out, all of them bringing an enjoyably unique feeling while remaining consistent in a stylistic sense, we had another four brand new tracks to look forward to upon, one of which was also released as an individual single on the same date as the album’s release. This meant that Chapter 2 carries a total of ten tracks.
Eskobar keeps things perfectly simple in terms of the order in which the tracks are placed, which is numerical in the case of Chapter 2. With that, the newest four tracks serve as the final four on the album itself. But this simultaneously serves as a fitting reflection of Eskobar’s musical journey this year, which has in turn provided listeners with a regular helping of undeniably feel-good tracks.
From beginning to end, this album is an absolute feel-good treasure trove, with the newest tracks settling into this idea effortlessly. Out of all of those brilliant new tracks, we especially loved ‘Keep Marching On’, and how much of a fitting anthem it is as we tread forward into 2021.
In conclusion, Chapter 2 is an essential fix of Britpop vibes, and so much more. Atmospherically, we feel that it is one of the most excelling pieces to ever come from Eskobar in that regard.
We are most certainly excited by the promising future that has been charted by this band’s newest album, and we cannot wait to see what lies ahead for them.
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