THE OPIUM CARTEL

Valor

M80s-skewed third album from Norwegian collective.

arcel Proust famously said, “Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.” The pop vocabulary of the 80s is something that clearly resonates with White Willow’s Jacob Holm-Lupo. The third album from his side project The Opium Cartel brims with icy strings, pitch-bending synths, cavernous drums, and the omnipresent twinkling of Yamaha DX-7 fairy dust. Yet this knowingly retro tribute, comes with a fresh 21st century perspective.

Featuring a collective of top-flight Nordic players, Valor offers unapologetically upbeat and mostly uptempo numbers. Like all good pop songs, these consistently strong tracks have a habit of getting under the skin thanks to an almost embarrassing number of great hooks and incisive committed performances. It’s not a total 80s fest. Something of the blissed-out psych-folk reverie of 2009’s debut Night Blooms is invoked via the pastoral introspection of Fairground Sunday, while fans of HolmLupo’s proggier instincts will especially enjoy the panoramic Maelstrom Of Stars which channels more than a touch of classic White Willow.