The Radio Dept.

Essential Albums

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About The Radio Dept.

Shoegaze-pop artists The Radio Dept. found a devoted fanbase by making the dreamiest protest music. Johan Duncanson formed a version of the group in high school in Lund, Sweden, reusing the name for a new band alongside multi-instrumentalist Martin Larsson in 2001. Their lo-fi, euphoric songs were collected on a brilliant lovelorn debut, Lesser Matters, in 2003. They found a broader audience when their aptly, yet subtly, anti-bourgeois songs were featured in Sofia Coppola's 2006 film, Marie Antoinette. Opting for less guitar and more synths, they hit their musical stride on 2010’s Clinging to a Scheme, offering political calls to arms against a corrupt government under a cascade of dreamy melodies. After suing their label and losing, the band released 2016’s Running out of Love, including “Occupied” an immersive, orchestral screed against the label crafted from waves of shimmering melancholia and synth-driven angst.

ORIGIN
Lund, Sweden
FORMED
1995
GENRE
Pop
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