Roger’s Blog

The upcoming print issue of Bootleg magazine will have a review of Standby

“Taking a band name by way of Monty Python makes sense for Ex Norwegian. As random as that comedy troupe is the same could be said of Ex Norwegian and the songs (and their titles) on their pop rock full length Standby. It wouldn’t be fair to criticize a band for having a multitude of influences but Ex Norwegian seems to be making twelve different albums at once with these twelve songs that are disparate and catchy and share three solid singers. They wear on their musical sleeve The Kinks, Spoon, Cheap Trick, a handful of teeny bopper pop bands, Cake, The Outfield, The Alarm, shades of T.Rex and many more. It sounds like mid-seventies Brit pop at times and then early eighties rock. Ex Norwegian is perfectly frantic and accessible.
Standby is a car crash of power pop, classic rock, tiny doses of punk and mainstream flavoring that, in the end, feels familiar and overtly optimistic. Lead vocalist Roger Houdaille has a unique voice that is as sonic as it is sweet. No matter what the song structuring is or sounds like, the material is upbeat. ‘Pow3rful’ is on fire, groping at pop-punk and ‘Something Unreal’ aches like a lost Kinks song. ‘Gross You’ is a distant cousin to ‘California Dreamin’ and ‘Sad Wonder’ struts along like solo Gene Simmons circa 1978.
Standby is a polished and varied album. For all those who complain that bands churn out an album of material that all sounds the same then Ex Norwegian is clearly the antidote. It’s not an album of songs intertwined around a single dynamic but ends up sounding like a mix CD of material. There’s a lot to pick from.”