''Lesser Matters'' is the debut studio album by Swedish

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...

band

The Radio Dept. The Radio Dept. is a Swedish dream pop band from Lund. History In 1995, schoolmates Elin Almered and Johan Duncanson started a band which they named after a gas-station-turned-radio-repair-shop called "Radioavdelningen" (Swedish for The Radio De ...

It was released on 4 March 2003 by

Labrador Records Labrador Records is a Sweden-based record label, specializing in indie pop and the twee subgenre. History Labrador was founded by Bengt Rahm in 1997 in Malmö, modeled on niche British record companies and Swedish fanzines like A Zero One and B ...

. The song "Keen on Boys" was featured in

Sofia Coppola Sofia Carmina Coppola (; born May 14, 1971) is an American filmmaker and actress. The youngest child and only daughter of filmmakers Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, she made her film debut as an infant in her father's acclaimed crime drama film ...

's ''

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child ...

'', also appearing on the soundtrack to the film. "Strange Things Will Happen" was also featured in

The Fault in Our Stars ''The Fault in Our Stars'' is a novel by John Green. It is his fourth solo novel, and sixth novel overall. It was published on January 10, 2012. The title is inspired by Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's play '' Julius Caesar'', in which the nobl ...

Critical reception

''Lesser Matters'' received rave reviews from critics. The album holds a rating of 84 out of 100 on the review aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, indicating "universal acclaim". It was ranked the ninth best album of 2004 by ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for ''Lesser Matters'' adapted from album liner notes. The Radio Dept. * Johan Duncansson – vocals, guitar, keyboards * Martin Larsson – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals * Lisa Carlberg – bass, piano * Per Blomgren – drums Additional musicians * Elin Almered – lead vocals (track 10) * Johannes Burström –

Roland Juno-60 The Roland Juno-60 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1984. It followed the Juno-6, an almost identical synthesizer released months earlier. The Juno synthesizers introduced Roland's digitally contro ...

synthesiser (tracks 3 and 8) Production * Johan Duncansson – mixing, recording * Martin Larsson – mixing, recording * Thomas Eberger – mastering Artwork and design * Elin Almered – cover artwork, painting * Mattias Berglund – sleeve design * Mårten Carlberg – photography

Charts

References

2003 debut albums The Radio Dept. albums Labrador Records albums {{2000s-indie-pop-album-stub