CEO – Wonderland
SoundCloud
Wonderland is Eric Berglund’s second effort under the name CEO, and though its more than a little obvious that he isn’t entirely sure what CEO is or how exactly it should sound, theres no escaping the fact that, despite their somewhat messy demeanor, his latest batch of sticky experiments is colorful, catchy and pretty fun to listen to.
It’s immediate to the ear that Wonderland is probably best served in the baking warmth of summer, but whilst its ideal climate is still some months away, its illuminating lifeblood will help significantly brighten even the darkest of wintery skies. Despite suffering from consistency issues and the aforementioned problems with its own identity, there’s definetly a lot of enjoyment to be extracted from CEO’s blending of ideas. Throwing into the mix aspects of chillwave, ambience, indie infused electronica, found footage sampling and even elements of crystallised, vintage pop gives the album a breezy, cool and light feel. It’s swift on its feet from start to finish, and despite a few somewhat misfired and vague attempts at prodding celebrity culture, its tone is carefree and fun loving throughout.
The cover art suggests that beneath the sleeve there may lie a degree of tribal inspired psychedelia, but the contents of Wonderland represent more of a brightly lit, pastel colored day at the beach. Although it might contain a few left field tangents (rustic string arrangements and looped, rhythmic samples of what seems to be children playing) Wonderland is pretty much straight forward and surface level fun. The obvious comparison to be made here is with Washed Out, and although Berglund’s textures might not be as tangled and its layers might not run as deep as his contemporaries, there seems to be more of an uplifting approach applied here — what CEO’s compositions may lack in finesse and detail, they certainly make up for with enthusiasm and energy.
More of a playful pitri dish than a well rounded record, Wonderland might not be the neon induced spectacle it could have been, but give it time. There are plenty of ideas and sounds on display here that could very well blossom into something much more significant if given the time and attention. The same can be pretty much be said of the man behind the album as well.
