Late Runner - Nothing's Real Anymore (2021) Hi Res

Nothing's Real Anymore is the debut album from Late Runner, the musical moniker of Danish songwriter Asger Tarpgaard. There's a careful attention to detail in Late Runner's dreamy alternative pop, drawing on a well of inspiration from the likes of The Beach Boys, Air, Beck, George Harrison and John Lennon, freely mixing modern clarity, and an ear for original and natural sounding melody, with 70's production vibes. It's contemplative music expressed with clear, vulnerable and warm singing and direct, thoughtful and introspective lyrics that work as thematically connected poems. In his native Denmark, Asger Tarpgaard experienced a meteoric rise with his first band Superheroes as a 16-year-old guitarist at the end of the 90's; a journey that saw the band topping charts over the course of three albums and five EP's, and even being hyped and recommended by none other than Beck! After, he joined the power pop trio Private with Tanja Forsberg Simonsen of ONBC and producer/singer Thomas Troelsen, and performed with Lightwave Empire with Bjarke Niemann of Spleen United. Late Runner, Asger explains, is something he has grown into; music he finally felt ready to write. The album's 10 tracks are permeated by a reflection on the past through the morose prism of the present. It conjures feelings of the diffuse sunlight of late summer or early autumn, not unlike the album's cover art. It's mature music, in other words, and Tarpgaard says that he is in a place now, where he is finally capable of committing to tape the music that is in his head. The title references Asger Tarpgaard's old band Superheroes' hit 'Someone Else' and, fittingly, he's joined by old bandmates Thomas Troelsen and Tanja Simonsen on backing vocals.