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Fix your eyes on these words:

Harrys Gym

What Was Ours Can’t Be Yours

Splendour

The first question to ask is why? Why Harrys Gym? It conjures up images of exercise and sweaty bodies and this is enough to put off any self-respecting hipster. But never fear, great and unusual music lives between these plastic walls. This isn’t Brother, that shit new band NME keep going on about, it’s Norwegian, shoegaze, synth pop. Weird? Yeah, pretty weird but also surprising and beautiful.

Accompanied by some astonishing artwork the album is a must listen for those Beach House and Bat For Lashes fans. Combining elements of both and still managing to sound refreshingly original.

Highlight ‘Sailing Home’ is heart capturing and encapsulates the changing mood of the album. Calm, soothing ‘Next Time’ along side fast paced ‘No Hero’. But the album doesn’t sound like a schizophrenic, getting in a rage when deciding what to wear in the morning. The songs flow together and follow on from each other like a waking, peaceful dream.

English language students might be getting angry by this point at the lack of apostrophe in Harrys Gym. Don’t be getting those furious emails out though, as the deliberate omission adheres to Norwegian grammatical rules. Those crazy Norwegians.

This band are full of potential which is shown on What Was Ours Can’t Be Yours, eleven songs that combine to form a soaring soundscape. A little bit like Sigur Rós, but without all that gibberish.

Harrys Gym play Nation Of Shopkeepers on 10^th February. That’ll be the past by the time this is published, but be assured it was good, better than going to the real gym anyway.

4/5

Yeah? An album worth listening to, I assure you.