By Stan Cierlitsky
Elias Rønnenfelt is quickly becoming one of my favorite artists, and boy is he prolific. In addition to the new Iceage album, For Love of Grace & the Hereafter (out May 29 via Mexican Summer), he has released so much great music over the last few years. This year he released one of my favorite covers in a long time, "The Orchids" by Califone. You will probably see it on my year-end list. Last year his collaboration with Dean Blunt, Lucre, was one of my favorite albums of 2025. Be sure to check out songs 3 and 4. They were two of my favorites of 2025. He also released his second solo album called Speak Daggers. "Mona Lisa" was my favorite song from that one. And, in 2024, he released his first solo album called Heavy Glory which I reviewed here. It's just a crazy amount of output.
And here we are with a new Iceage album, For Love of Grace & the Hereafter. It's the Danes' sixth album in an expansive 18 -year career. I was sadly a little late to the party joining in around 2018 for the amazing Beyondless album. You have to check out the title track as it's one of my favorites of life.
There is no hiding the fact that this new album is probably the most ambitious of their career. They are clearly aspiring to make an album full of bangers, one after another. The first single "Star" clearly fits that mold. Second single and album opener "Ember" does too. You will quickly realize that guitars are driving this album alongside Elias, and a lot of it is going to sound vaguely familiar. It's a great song and also has a great video.
Iceage have never been a band to hide their influences. To me, they sit firmly in that Oasis camp of borrowing a vibe without stealing a tune. I first started noticing this back in 2018 when I first heard "Catch It". Now, you tell me they hadn't been listening to their Cure collection when they wrote that one. With that in mind, check out "Lifetime" from this album. It's one of my favorites here. Anyone hear The Smiths? I almost expected Elias to start with "Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate". And don't get me wrong as I actually love this, just like I did with Oasis. It gives the songs an immediate accessibility (although for old farts like me that have so many songs in their head it sometimes drives me crazy trying to figure out the reference).
Anyway, like I was saying, every song here is a banger. Third single "The Weak" might be the best of the bunch and that's saying a lot. A perfect barrage of sound, Elias belts out "life is for the weak" right before what I guess is a chorus of kids' plastic recorders chimes in. Perfectly weird.
The last song I wanted to talk about was the album closer "True Blue". The band finally slows down a bit for the opening of this one. It almost sounds like a slowed down bit of shoegaze guitar loop from My Bloody Valentine's Loveless (1991). I love this. It kind of takes me back to the great experimentation I heard back on 2018's Beyondless. The end of the song kicks back in to match the energy of the rest of the album.
Definitely check out this album. I doubt you'll be disappointed if you like British guitar bands as this was seemingly made for fans of The Smiths, Frank Ferdinand, and maybe even early Supergrass. Hopefully Iceage will be doing a full US tour to support this great album.
For Love of Grace & the Hereafter by Iceage is out May 29 via Mexican Summer.
[Photo: Alva Le Febvre]