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Sondre Lerche is a former teen prodigy, the release of his debut album ‘Faces Down’ in 2000 being held up while he finished school. However, despite the fame, money success and no doubt legion of female admirers the young Norwegian has already cumulated in his short life it’s hard to feel in any way begrudging having listened to this album. For ‘Phantom Punch’ is a highly enjoyable listen on which Lerche comes across as a cool and intelligent figure. The wry, louche persona reminds of Beck or Ryan Adams; however Lerche warmed up for the recording of the album touring with Elvis Costello and lists him along with Fleetwood Mac and XTC as influences. He has certainly picked up song writing abilities from these predecessors; this is a very consistent album, with every song a decent tune.
Even when he tests the listener’s patience slightly with seven minutes of droney guitar and ambient vocals on ‘Happy Birthday Girl’ he stills pulls it together in the end as the song builds to a blistering, enjoyable conclusion. It’s untypical of the album though, as generally these songs are concise 3/ 4 minute, new wavy pop-rock songs, deceptively simple, and apparently generally recorded live in one take - though it’s clear a huge effort has gone into packing everything with as many catchy hooks as possible.
Lerche has, typically, an effortlessly effective voice - a guttural, melodic tone similar to Julian Casablanca’s, which can often eases comfortably into a falsetto. This it does to great effect on ‘John, Let Me Go’ which also shows his mastery of the verse/ chorus/ verse formula. He’s too cool to completely rock out but does slightly on ‘The Tape’ and ‘Face The Blood’ which have something of Dirty Pretty Things’ speedy, driving style about them
He isn’t too cool to let some emotion show, however, thankfully - ‘Tragic Mirror’ is a maudlin ballad exploring poor self image, understated but affecting. As is the very lovely, romantic ballad ‘After All.’ The highlight of the album though is ‘She’s Fantastic’ a track about simply complete infatuation, it’s charming and poppy and built around an irresistible shimmering, jangly guitar riff. Happy listening indeed. Lerche even throws in something completely off kilter with final track ‘Europa and The Pirates’ which goes well beyond having a bit of new- wavy influence into full on and indeed spot on 80s homage – specifically to the new romantics and Bowie’s 80s stuff.
Overall ‘Phantom Punch' feels like real album, rather than a random collection of songs thrown together of filler churned out and as such is a real treat.
