Weeping Willows – Endless Night (1999)

There seems to be something deeply melancholic in the Nordic state of mind. At least there are lots and lots of bands in the Nordic countries that channel mostly sad emotions in their songs. As even the name of the band might suggests, Weeping Willows is one of these bands. At the turn of the millennium, they were one of the most interesting Swedish bands out there. Endless Night is their second album and in my opinion it's one of their best overall. The album is very skilfully produced and there's quite big orchestration in the songs that remind me of some other indie rock artists of the same time such as Mercury Rev or Kent. There are also some slight influences from the guitar band Shadows in the guitar sounds. The album is overall quite melancholic and there are, above all, huge emotions in the performance on the album.



The lead singer of the band, Magnus Carlson, has sometimes been called Morrissey of Sweden, because of the slight resemblance of their vocals. Then again, I'm sure Magnus Carlson is a lot more pleasant person than Morrissey. He has a style that reminds me of 50s and 60s rockabilly musicians. For some reason, I feel like this look was quite popular in Sweden at least around the time when this album was released.

The band always had very ambitious sounds and good songs, so I'm a bit surprised why they didn't do as well internationally as you might expect from a Swedish band of this calibre singing in English. Perhaps the music was a bit too melancholic for international audiences. I feel like the Nordic melancholy doesn't always reach international audiences as well. At least Weeping Willows was very popular in Finland at the time.

The album begins with sad and sharp electric guitars in the song While I'm Still Strong. There's amazing emotion in the vocals in the chorus. What's refreshing is that Carlson's vocals are actually really good technically as well. Many indie rock singers deliberately sing in voices that are not technically that great to create unique sounds, but I do appreciate when someone is using their whole capability in the vocals. True to You is a lot more up-beat song. There are excellent violin bits in the song. Emptiness starts as a quiet ballad that grows bit by bit into this overwhelmingly ambitious fairytale song. It shows just how good the Swedish producers are. I Close My Eyes continues the queue of melodramatic ballads. There's amazing airy and echoey mood in the song making me think of a dream-like state. By the River has excellent psychedelic guitar riffs in the beginning, combined with glockenspiels. The song has many different parts and it just keeps on growing and growing with the aid of a full orchestra. When You Are Asleep is an amazing sad song with elements that remind me of trip-hop bands of the 90s. This is the kind of sound I grew up with and it'll always have a very positive impact on me despite of all the sadness. The Truth Is In Your Eyes has chiming bells and larger than life string arrangements, which makes this song sound like it can only be performed on a stadium stage. Catherine is one of the best songs on the album. It's just played on string instruments, which makes it sound amazingly beautiful. Where Will You Stay has some psychedelic choral bits that really remind me of Mercury Rev. There's a great heavy beat in this sad song. Stay With Me sounds like it's made for alternative films, because immediately when it starts playing, I'm envisioning a film sequence in front of my eyes. Nothing or All has very big sounds right from the beginning and I feel like we continue with film music. Looking for a Home tones the mood down again, but there is that insanely massive orchestration in the background even in the bits that are quite quiet. The album ends with the title-track Endless Night that has the kind of lazy rhythm and warm mood that really leaves you savouring the album you've just heard.

There seems to be a video for the song True to You. It features the lead singer Magnus Carlson in a neat suit walking through scenery that looks like the southern states of America. Throughout the song he's remembering his lost love and the moments they had together. The memories are coloured yellow while the present is in normal colours. There's also some action backstory in the video, which I'm not too clear on what it means.

I was really fond of Weeping Willows almost 20 years ago when these albums were new, but more recently I haven't really listened to them that much. They still sound excellent, but I guess I was a bit bored with this type of melodramatic melancholic music as that was pretty much the only musical style I was listening to for a long time. Now it feels though, that I could enjoy this band again as it's been a while since I've listened to them properly.

Listen to the album on Spotify.