Here Comes The Wind rating: asin: B000RPCEU2 binding: Audio CD list price: $28.98 USD amazon price: $28.98 USD

Do you like summer? Does it make you smile to think of a bee kissing a newborn lamb in a flowery, multi-hued and multi-fragranced meadow? If so, then perhaps you should give Here comes the wind a listen. That’s the second studio album by the Swedish band Envelopes. It’s barely longer than half an hour, but if you enjoy rainbows and hopes, then this should leave you fully satisfied.

Be warned, though: listening to this album might cause you to try out an impromptu dance while doing the washing-up, and you might break your favourite wine glass. The risk is by no means imaginary! It’s as if these melodies were made for whistling. Also: I’m fairly certain that all members were hugged by all their loved ones right before they hit the record button. By the sound of it, they were promised another hug inbetween songs, too, so no-one is in any hurry whatsoever.

Over the course of repeated listens, I have come up with a little theory — or a recipe, if you like — of how this band came into existence. The more I listen to their music, the more convinced I get that I my guess is correct.

We’ll need one talented teenage band. One of those sweet pop groups, you know, young, energetic and cutesy, who have just learned to play together as a band and who have written a couple of happy tunes about lost baby smiles and about how hard it is to get a plastic toy car to run in winter. One of those.

Then add some life spice. Send all members to a local university, or have them attend evening classes. Enroll the girl singer in a literature programme, to start her thinking about the Great Themes in Life without having her turn into an academic. Let both guys on guitar duty study a little philosophy, in order to let them see that what on the surface appears to be an unsorted heap of phenomena (or, why not, notes), can display an elegant structure on some higher level. The bass player should study something that builds patience, independence and self-understanding, like psychology. As for the drummer, he should definitely spend some time around the anthropology department: he needs a laid-back and tolerant attitude towards the world. He could learn to play djembe there, too. All anthropologists do.

Let stew for a while, et voilà:  your Envelopes is ready! They haven’t unlearned the skill of writing delightfully odd lyrics, but they’ve matured a little beyong mere oddness, too. They already knew that people ought to whistle a happy tune more often; they have now also learned not to take themselves too seriously. They’ll have found out, too, that it’s perfectly alright to show the world they’ve got a sense of humour.

Yup. This is pretty much what the Envelopes sound like. During songs, the girl singer sounds a little absent, somewhat confused, as if she’s just spotted a rainbow-coloured birdy from the corner of her eye and she’s vaguely wondering about whether Ophelia or Raskolnikov ever got to see such a happy tweeter and whether that would have made any difference for them. But that is ok! In fact, it’s near perfect. She should most definitely not sound any different.

The songs on Here comes the wind have words like party, countryside and school in them, but they are not about any of these things! Instead they are about a girl who tells about how her mother is scared of dying every time her father goes on vacation (Boat). Or about how they didn’t take pictures of each other in a swamp (I’d like 2 C U). Or about feeling like a kangaroo (Seawise). And sometimes they’re purely about being in love and not caring who knows about it (I’m in love and I don’t care who knows).

Life, according to the Envelopes, is pretty. If you’re curious about them, you can listen to a couple of their songs over at their their MySpace.

(You can find some more information here and here.)