Dina Ögon – Orion [Full Album]
New album ‘Orion’ (Release Date: February 2nd, 2024) is the third outing from Dina Ögon (“Your Eyes” in Swedish), the band that surprisingly flew in over the Swedish music scene from the sidelines two years ago.
Dina Ögon have managed to condense the best from their self-titled debut and the sophomore effort Oas, without losing any of the playfulness. The first two albums were steeped in a rampant nostalgia that redeveloped old music into new. Orion however steps forward, even though the band can’t refrain from nodding back to their beloved musical influences of old the soundscape is so modern. Dina Ögon seem more focused on the heavens above than on the earth below them, their vision is more out- and upward bound on Orion than in comparison with previous albums. The laidback sound of Håll avstånd and Glitter reminds you of space. The scent of space aside, the band still has its feet on the ground, the drumming on Milton is firmly rooted in Brazilian soul and the sound is at once beautiful, melancholic, and joyful, like a song by Milton Nascimento, the artist it is named after, and Det läcker comes across like a four plus minute long road movie.
Orion seduces with a confidence greater than on all previous efforts from Dina Ögon. It’s a testament to their strength. At one and the same time the album winds up and about through different moods and a coherent expression. The music fits neatly together with songs that explore a darker subject matter than before, without losing a playful lyricism. The title track is like a curious and joyful walk through a forest, and the opening track a bittersweet cavalcade of emotion that sets the bar for everything that follows. When the record progresses to Håll avstånd the listener is bombarded by a relentless groove that’s bound to find its way on to myriads av mixtapes from more adventurous DJ’s.
Just as with the previous albums, any radio-DJ contemplating what songs to play is bound for some tough decisions, because the album is devoid of weak tracks. You could pick what tracks to promote the album with blindfolded. The electric organ on Firad feels lifted from the soundtrack of an obscure cult movie. Orion moves in between city and country, great expanses and great clubs, bars, and chambers, and you can tell – this is an album that will ignite dancefloors as well as ride the airwaves and end nights, even more than its predecessors.
Dina Ögon have struggled with describing their music. Bass player Love Örsan once suggested “ordinary pop”. Which is way too humble, this is altogether extraordinary pop. Extraordinary because the album seamlessly forms a whole you want to dive and exit your everyday life into. It’s easy to get lost in the world created between Anna Ahnlunds suave vocals and the ridiculously tight general musicianship. Few ordinary pop albums have that quality.
Dina Ögon have developed their alchemy with Orion. The impressive ability to manage wildly disparate musical influences is subsumed under the unfailingly original expression.