Team Me - To The Treetops

Team Me are a young popband from near Norway’s capital Oslo. Up until last month they counted six band members, until vocalist and only girl in the band Synne Knudsen decided to leave. With this rather unfortunate incident, it is that Team Me’s debut appears in the UK.

However, this band spilt does in no way overshadow the positive mood of their ultimately cheerful and full-of-life debut. Team Me could easily be dismissed as another of those ‘quirky, fast-paced-pop’ Nordic bands that counted Those Dancing Days and even The Sounds amongst them, if it weren’t for their gloriously refined song structures and gleeful arrangements that nod more to a sunnier sounding Bright Eyes or a less gloomy and introspective Arcade Fire.

Kicking off proceedings with the strangely named ‘Riding My Bicycle (from Ragnvalsbekken To Sorkedalen)’, Team Me set the bar high for multi-harmony pop-perfection (and weird song titles). After this equally outstanding and experimental first effort, Team Me deliver well-polished and shiny quirk anthems throughout.

‘Patrick Wolf & Daniel Johns’ speaks the forceful language of a band that has mastered the craft of appealing as much to the indie kids dancing in clubs as to the older cultured Belle and Sebastian fan. The grandiosely picturesque quality of ‘Weathervanes & Chemicals’ translates the feeling of a warm Norway summer shower into music with its finely nuanced and rhythmically trembling highs and lows and breathless singing.

‘Dear Sister’ might be their most accomplished track coming to life through layers of intricate soundscapes that recall the giddiness and joyful exuberance of Those Dancing Days and combine this with the darker, reflective moments of a more Nordic Beirut. It’s utterly majestic and deeply intoxicating.

To The Treetops is a gleeful but never garish debut. Its dizzy verve, tumultuous teenage angst and giddy excitement showcase what a good album is all about: elation, exuberance and entertainment and Team Me nail all three points.