"Like a bunch of cowboys spinning on peyote, Beatles and Neutral Milk Hotel albums, Isolation Years ties up its blend of styles tighter than NORAD headquarters. A rollicking, folksy head trip filled with touches of everything from classic pop (helped along by the legendary Swedish propensity for the style) to touches of bluegrass that’d send the Telluride recreationists up the wall, Inland Traveller boasts a style few bands can match. Trippy saw noises and bursts of electric guitar put a psychedelic glaze on “Light the Torch,” an otherwise straightforward acoustic tune, but “Cold Morning in Minusinsk” sticks to a simple acoustic twang that’s all Americana. Other times, the Years venture more closely to outright pop, as “Talkin’ Backward Masking Blues” checks left-coast pop with giant guitar hooks while trumpet, trombone and flugelhorn incorporate the sophistication that, until you hear this record, would seem to be the antithesis of its rootsy side.
Isolation Years doesn’t just meddle with its influences. The band grasps them, wrestles them into submission, and makes them work for it on this album. While it’s occasionally difficult to wade through Inland Traveller’s sometimes repressingly somber atmosphere – half as many songs drag as get listeners’ hearts pumping – it’s clear these Swedes have a road map for pop success already laid out on this debut."
--R. Paul Matthews for Aversion.com