Us and Them - 2025 - The Lights and the Shadow

(44:41, Friends of the Fish)

Track list:
1. View from Sky Road 2:39
2. Around the Maypole (Once Again) 4:29
3. Get in the Swing 2:26
4. Me and the Ones Before Me 7:00
5. Us and Them 4:41
6. If the Summer Lingers 2:36
7. Things Obvious to Other People 6:05
8. I Was a Wayward Child 6:58
9. Tear Apart 7:47

Line-up:
Britt Rönnholm - vocals
Anders Haakanson - instruments

Prolusion.
Swedish duo Us And Them has been a going concern for twenty years or thereabouts, and they are one of numerous creative outlets that I strongly associate with UK label Fruits de Mer Records due to their recurring involvement with that label. Following a 10 year long wait this twosome released their third full length studio production this year. This new album is called "The Lights and the Shadow", and was released on the Friends of the Fish imprint of the aforementioned label Fruits de Mer Records.

Analysis.
It is inside of the folk part of the progressive rock universe that this duo have their residence. In this case we aren't dealing with a highly expressive take on that tradition, but rather in a subdued and borderline understated variety of the form. This isn't a creative outlet that explore stark contrasts, dramatic peaks or other features of the in your face variety. Instead these are introspective landscapes, soft spoken and often with a bit of a tripped down feel to them. Careful, subtle and elegant are keywords here, and descriptions like ethereal, pastoral and otherworldly are all equally applicable.

Vocalist Britt supplies a soft and dreamladen lead vocal presence and dreamlike, borderline innocent sounding backing vocal details, and in a manner and with a delivery that at times have that little bit of an innocent 1960s charm to it. Instrumentalist Anders supply whatever instruments the individual compositions require. Whether it is a stripped down acoustic guitar and flute arrangement or a layered creation creating a soft but also majestic soundscape with orchestral, cosmic or more strict pastoral mood, mode and form.

There are songs here that you might imagine a girl singing while walking a countryside road in the pre-industrial age, but also futuristic sounding creations that sound like gentle soundscapes that might some day be made by our children's children's children. As well as songs that would have been a suitable inclusion in a motion picture taking place somewhere in Middle Earth. Folk music is the foundation here, with a bit of a singer/songwriter feel to some parts of the material, with a liberal amount of elements brought in from the psychedelic music tradition and perhaps with a bit more of an understated and dampened inclusion also of aspects from the rock music legacy. 

While I do find this be a delightful production through and through, without any weak points or tendencies of that nature to be present as far as I'm concerned, I do feel most drawn to the longer compositions that conclude this production. With a bit of an otherworldly vibe being very much a presence in all of the final three compositions, where a subtle cosmic vibe is present in the first two of these while the third strikes me as being of a more grounded nature as far as otherworldly moods and associations go.

Conclusion.
If you tend to enjoy artists that explore the blend of folk music, psychedelic music and rock music in a more soft, elegant and understated manner, then this latest album by Us And Them should be right up your alley. An album where stripped down pastoral creations coexist with softly layered constructions that adds a bit of a cosmic vibe to the proceedings, and with a variety of songs that exist somewhere in between those outer edges. An introspective, elegant and dreamladen journey into the folk and psychedelic oriented parts of the progressive rock tradition.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, October 2025

Links:
https://www.usandthem.se/
https://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/