Best of (Swedish) Myspace Music
I love you France. I really do. I love you Canada. You know I’d be your girl. But, there’s something about Swedish music that I’m addicted to lately. I’ve gotten into many different Swedish bands this year and I’ve blogged about them as well (with pics!) including the likes of Frida Hyvönen and The Concretes and, of course, Jens Lekman not to mention countless others that have appeared in other Best of Myspace Music blogs.
These three somehow slipped through my fingers recently and I am not exactly sure how that is. The only explanation I can think of is that I skipped going to the record store the day they were hyped or I was so immersed with other bands that these just escaped me. I’d heard the names of these bands around many times and just ran out of time, I guess. Literally, I just picked up two of these bands albums Friday and I can’t stop listening to either of them. Part of me thinks because these bands have already been blogged about, I should not blog about them but maybe you’re like me and that extra random bit of information will help push you towards discovering them too.
I found myself a copy of El Perro Del Mar’s recently released debut self titled album on Rough Trade and I haven’t felt this way about an album since I listened to and became addicted to Portishead’s Dummy. Even though it has a much different feel, Sarah Assbring’s vocals are still, as the vocals of Beth Gibbons, an acquired taste. I experienced hearing Portishead’s “Sour Times” and El Perro Del Mar’s “Sadness” in much the same way. My initial reaction was almost one of being turned off when they came over the college station airwaves. It literally bothered me to listen to it. But one day, I heard the song one more time and it was the right time and I thought “I have to get that album this song is off of this very day or I will throw myself into the river and never come back to land.” Okay, so I get over dramatic about my music.
Anyhow, this album overall is somewhat well rounded considering that it does offer up more hopeful tracks between the melancholy ones. The aforementioned “Party” as well as “This Loneliness” actually remind me a little of Sweden’s Shout Out Louds song “Go Sadness” in just the overall feel and tone of the song. “Party” feels emotional and tragic as Sarah sings “Come on over baby, there’s a party going on.” (You can’t possibly imaging there is a party going on the way she sings it.”) while in “This Loneliness,” Sarah talks about loneliness as both taking the place of a friend and as the overwhelming sense coming over her. She ends the album well enough on a positive note with “It’s All Good” and “Here Comes That Feeling” and yet it’s the sad songs that end up sticking with you all day, as if the others just weren’t somehow as memorable.
El Perro Del Mar on myspace (Too bad I don’t actually live in Sweden. She’s doing a concert next week with The Concretes in Stockholm. How cool is that?!
There are some voices that are instantly catchy that you want to listen to all day. Such is the case here with all the male voices and the guest appearance of the lovely Victoria Bergsman previously of The Concretes on the lovely duet in “Young Folks.” (Go watch the really cool video for this song here in the music & video section where the guy teaches the girl to put her lips together to whistle. It’s really cute. Perhaps even more catchy on their fantastic album Writer’s Block is the irresistible single “Amsterdam” that has a bit of a Magnetic Fields sounding feel to it.
You can also view videos and hear songs by visiting their myspace page
Something tells me this band is going to be really big in the indie circles when their album Let me Introduce my Friends is released this spring. Right now, you can only find it for a higher price on import. Despite the misleading band name (sort of like El Perro Del Mar which I had no idea was even a Swedish band the first time I heard about them), this band is indeed from Sweden. The songs are very sing songy indie pop which seem to mainly be the work of Emanuel Lundgren and his friends. I really love the full background vocals that I’m hearing like for example on “Treehouse” and the way the banjo weaves in and out. Much like Sweden’s The Acid House Kings, you’d have a hard time not tapping your feet and feeling happy about the world while listening even on the grimmest of days.