Mando Diao - All The People EP

Rating

4.0/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Five very different songs
Nice Mando Diao sound

Flyctory.com Cons

Solid to good songs, nothing outstanding

Borlänge – I will always combine that city with the 1993 German Tennis Davis Cup semifinal defeat against Sweden. Michael Stich and Marc-Kevin Göllner took a straight 5-0 victory and advanced to the Davis Cup finals (which Germany finally won 4-1 against Australia). If you are rather a music lover than a tennis buff, you might, however, first think of Mando Diao, who have been one of the most promising Swedish rock exports of the earlier 2000’s. Even though the band has already the Swedish album I soldnedgangen in March, they are back in the record stores with songs in English. The EP, which has been released on 17th July 2020, is called All the People.

Mando Diao – About The Artists

Nowadays, Mando Diao consists of five members, Björn Dixgard, Jens Silverstedt, Carl-Joahn Fogelklou, Petrik Heikinpieti and Daniel Haglund. Dixgard, Foglklou and Haglund have already been founding members of the band in 1999 – Haglund had left the band for an eight-year period from 2003, though. They got very good critics from the very beginning, so that comparably soon, they had an EMI record deal. Already their first album, Bring ‘Em In (2002), was quite a success and received gold status in Sweden and Japan. While there was no real remarkable chart placement on the singles side, initially, the band grew their fan base. The folliowing two albums had gold status in Germany and Austria, for example and made it to the Top 10 in these markets (as well as Sweden and Switzerland).

Finally, 2009 was the year of Mando Diao. Dance With Somebody has been a worldwide success. It only topped the Austrian signle charts, but sold well in many markets. Not too surprisingly, the corresponding album Give Me Fire topped Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The following album Infruset was the band’s first one in Swedish – still it has a chart placement in Switzerland as well. The band experimented thereafter, released an album recorded with the Soviet Aelita synthesizer in 2014 and lost a bit of European attention. In that year, they had their second Top 10 single in Germany only, Black Saturday. More and more, the band stayed popular in their home country, but struggled in other markets. So far, they already released nine studio albums.

Mando Diao – All The People – Track by Track

The five track EP lasts 18 minutes

1. All the People

The title song is a nice, melodic recording. Maybe a bit soft and emotional, but not too soupy. Good song with a lot of summer vibes in it.

2. Hippie Son

Don’t get into trouble son
Don’t you turn on me
From all that I hear
You wanna break free
I gave my life to you
But you threw it back like a dirty rag
You should know money can’t get you free

I just love to listen that the protagonist of that song was born as a hippe son. Again, this track has a lot of summer vibes – bad luck that they cannot present it at the festivals this year. Could be a cool one!

3. Magic Kiss

Like it or hate it? I love the lyrics, I like the melody, but maybe it is a bit too dark. The sound feels so amazingly old-fashioned. No matter what is the final rating, it leaves me with a smile.

4. Fly to Me

On Fly to Me, the lyrics are likely the most intense ones on the whole album. Very centric on the vocals. I don’t fully like that – but it is an impressive arrangement, indeed.

5. Queen Mary

The EP closes with the longest track. A Mando Diao ballad. They have their own style for that – but it is defintiely a nice listen.

Mando Diao – All The People – Spotify

Here is the Spotify widget of the album:

Mando Diao – All The People – My View

Mando Diao definitely still got a good sound. The EP is versatile, has very different sounds – but finally, I struggle to lift it to the very high class of recordings. If you liked the Swedes in the past, you definitely have to have a listen. For all others, I recommend to be curious.