Getting married and becoming a father are life experiences that have apparently given Martin Henrik Hasselgren a new perspective but he still sounds like someone heavily burdened by doubt and uncertainty.
Under the alias of Boy Omego, this is the Swede's sixth album and his first time in a professional recording studio.
Hasselgren says that the nine songs "are about the frailty of life and strength of love" and his occasional falsettos and the hushed intensity of his vocals have echoes of Elliot Smith and Rufus Wainwright.
Yet for all the emotional depth he pours into the songs, they are so swathed in strings and synthesizers that they have a permanently muted and subdued quality.
A crisper and cleaner sound would have allowed the tunes to breathe a little.
Also his constant imploring tone quickly starts to wear thin as there's nothing to counterbalance the relentless melancholy.
For this reason, the plaintive voice and funereal pace of Our Treasures is meant to tug on the heartstrings but merely has a soporific effect. Triggers is the album's most upbeat track but just sounds like a poor man's Cure.
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Not only this, but the singer is so wrapped up in his emotional fragility that his bullshit detector constantly malfunctions and enables him sing naff lines like "We'll be one with the butterflies" (Cannonballs) with a straight face.
"The sky lit up" is a line used in the opening track (Marching Ants) and on the first single, Halos.
While this illuminates fireflies and stars it gives no clues as to why he feels so desperate and delicate so we have no way of knowing if, why or how we should empathise.
Boy Omega's website
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