Splendid (USA):

Songs For Quiet Souls

Sweden's John Alexander Ericson looks like he could be in Savage Garden, but if his brand of moody pop has any Aussie lineage, it comes from arch gloom-poppers The Church. For his solo debut, Ericson, erstwhile singer and songwriter for The Northern Territories, cuts enormous swathes of icy, string-leaden atmospherics and whittles them down into a dozen brooding pop numbers. Ericson sings like a Scandinavian Thom Yorke -- his fragile, quavering voice is usually light and mellifluous, but capable of swelling mightily when a little extra drama and oomph are required, which is often.
"Vampires in Searchlights" is a near-perfect exercise in acoustic pop despondency, with a "motherless we all are" lyric; the piano-kissed "Microman" stretches out into an instrumental piece worthy of a tragic art-house clip; "A World You'll Never Reach" is the stirring show-stopper, complete with multi-tracked Ericsons and a backing kids' choir.
Pity Mr. Yorke: if he'd ever entertained notions of pulling an Ashcroft, splitting with Radiohead and going solo with a big-screen vocal pop record, Songs for Quiet Souls dashes 'em. Seems someone's beaten him to it.
-- Steve English